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Japan to fund firms to shift production out of China

bloomberg.com

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Re: Japan to fund firms to shift production out of China

#461
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of writing in international relations circles right now about how the slapshod global response to this crisis, in contrast to previous pandemics like ebola and H1N1, is evidence that the era of US hegemony is over. Without a hegemonic entity putting its imprimatur on what the "right way" to do things is, everything ends up being kind of a mess.

I guess we can look forward to Chinese hegemony in the future, since the US doesn't want to do it any more.

Maybe. But there's a lot of doubt as to whether China is cut out to exercise broad hegemonic influence the way the US has. They might not have the cultural cachet or a compelling enough ideological framework for international cooperation the way America's Wilsonian institutionalism was. It's more likely we're heading for a more chaotic and unstable multi-polar world.

Re: Japan to fund firms to shift production out of China

#462
post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's their selling point for country managers and boy do they deliver. But it's not that interesting for the general population. Very few people want rapid growth and "social harmony" by themselves.

You'd be surprised, actually. This is more true in third world countries, and other areas that have experienced instability relatively recently (e.g. ex-USSR countries, including Russia) - at some point people start demanding a "strong hand" and whatnot.

Fun thing is, I am from ex-USSR country.

People still remember Soviet-style "social harmony" and there's a big allergy for that path.

Rapid growth is not exactly popular too for multiple reasons.

Growth-over-ecology brings bad memories from soviet era

Growth-over-labour-rights brings bad memories from 90s and somewhat soviet era

Rapid change itself brings bad memories from 90s and 00s too

Re: Japan to fund firms to shift production out of China

#464

At the very least, medical supplies and drugs manufacturing will get pulled back into each country. The 3M spat between Canada and the US makes it abundantly clear that in a time of true crisis, you can't even trust your closest friends when something terrifying happens to the world like this pandemic. Whether it means all manufacturing will move away from China or if it means that they will spread it globally, is an…

What they should do is come up with a trade pact for countries outside China and increase production there. Sort of like a Pacific-wide partnership...
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