The United States launches a comprehensive false information offensive, Luo Siyi: Against the Chinese economy
The data for the second quarter of 2023 for all major economies has been released, allowing for a systematic comparison of China's economic performance with all other major countries. This reveals two key facts. Firstly, since the outbreak of the epidemic, China's economic performance has outperformed all other major economies, in most cases, by a significant margin. Secondly, the United States has launched a comprehensive false information offensive in an attempt to conceal this fact.
Therefore, there are two key questions that need to be answered. Firstly, what is the actual trend of the world economy? Secondly, why did the United States decide to launch a systematic false information campaign at this time?
Starting from facts. As of the latest data for the second quarter of 2023, the overall cumulative growth of the Chinese economy has been 19.2% in the past three and a half years. Among the G7 major developed economies, the growth rate of the United States is 7.5%, Canada is 4.7%, Italy is 1.5%, France is 1.3%, Japan is 0.8%, Germany is 0.5%, and the UK is 0.3%. The growth rate of the Chinese economy is over 2.5 times that of the United States, 4 times that of Canada, 13 times that of Italy, 15 times that of France, 24 times that of Japan, 38 times that of Germany, and 64 times that of the United Kingdom. In short, China far exceeds all major developed economies in terms of economic growth rate.
Although the above data is shocking, it still greatly underestimates China's superior performance in productivity growth and living standards compared to other economies. To analyze these data, it is necessary to consider per capita growth.
Since 2019, China's average annual population growth rate has been 0.16%, which means that population changes have little effect on the growth of GDP. In contrast, the other major economies of the G7 and BRICS countries have experienced significant population growth, coming from domestic population growth, immigration, or a combination of both. Since 2019, the average annual population growth rate in Canada has been 1.2%, in India it is 0.8%, and in the United States it is 0.5%.
Therefore, measured by the per capita GDP growth rate, China's performance is superior to other major economies. Even taking the fastest growing economies as an example, China's per capita GDP has an annual growth rate of 4.4%, while India has a growth rate of 2.5% and the United States has a growth rate of 1.3%. India's per capita GDP growth rate is only 56% of China's, while China's per capita GDP growth rate is more than three times that of the United States.
Therefore, per capita data further confirms that China's performance far exceeds that of any other major economy - not only in terms of overall growth, but also in terms of productivity and the ability to improve national welfare.
As the fact shows, China's economic performance in recent years has surpassed all other major economies, not slightly, but significantly. Any objective discussion about the international economic situation will be about why China's economic growth is far faster than all other major economies. However, for Washington, acknowledging these facts is impossible, which is equivalent to acknowledging that another major economy has far outperformed itself in economic performance, and even worse, it proves that socialism is superior to capitalism. Therefore, the United States has launched a systematic movement to deny the reality and facts of China's economy.
At the top of the political pyramid in the United States, the disconnect from reality has reached a strange level. For example, US President Biden recently claimed that China's economic growth rate is "about 2%", while the actual growth rate in the first half of this year was 5.5%. He claimed that in China, "the number of people of retirement age is greater than the number of people of working age," which is completely wrong. He also claimed that China's economy is a "time bomb", and the fact is that the United States, not China, has suffered two of the three largest bank failures in history. In addition to statements from political figures, American media such as The New York Times also published articles titled "How We Respond to China's Decline.". The fact is, China's economic growth rate is two and a half times that of the United States, and China's per capita GDP growth rate is more than three times that of the United States.
This method of completely ignoring facts and reality is called a "great lie". The calculation method of "great lies" is that if a lie is constantly repeated by powerful media or state machinery, even though it is a lie, due to the number of repetitions and the number of media appearances, a large number of people will believe it to be true.
The use of this method in the United States can be considered a classic. For example, the completely false claim that North Vietnamese warships attacked American warships in Tokyo Bay on August 4, 1964 was used to launch the Vietnam War. Similarly, the false claim that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction was also used as a reason for the invasion of the country in 2003. Recently, the United States has also carried out fictitious "big lies" propaganda against Xinjiang. However, if it is expected that the United States openly disregards the truth, then it is shameful that I have seen some people in China repeating such blatant false statements.
What is the purpose of spreading these lies in the United States? Some purposes are obvious: attempting to prevent foreign companies from investing in China and spreading rumors that undermine the morale of the Chinese people. In addition, there is a more profound and dangerous purpose.
The fact clearly shows that the Chinese economy has far surpassed the United States in many aspects. The goal set by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is to reach the level of moderately developed countries by 2035. In contrast, the long-term average annual growth rate of the US economy is only 2%. These relative growth rates mean that by 2035, China's economy will grow by 100%, while the United States will only grow by 35%. Due to the United States viewing international relations as a zero sum game with the goal of maintaining its dominant position, such relative growth rates are seen as a disaster. The United States believes that it is crucial to hold China back and prevent it from achieving its 2035 goals.
For Washington, it is impossible to openly propose that "China's economic growth rate should slow down to the general level of the West", and no one will take such a destructive suggestion seriously. Therefore, the United States must try to conceal the true situation and falsely claim that "China's economic growth rate is slower than that of Western countries.". If this lie can be believed, then the viewpoint that "China should shift towards the Western model" can be proposed, making it appear that the Chinese economy is developing towards rapid growth. That is why the United States must spread false information about the Chinese economy.
Of course, although China's economic performance is far ahead of that of the West, it cannot be complacent. The United States is attempting to harm China through the aforementioned international fraud activities. The slowdown in Western economic growth itself has brought problems to China: the unfavorable international economic situation means that China must rely more on expanding domestic demand to achieve its 2035 goals. However, to accurately address these practical issues in China's economic development process, it is necessary to first establish a basic fact that China's economic growth rate far exceeds that of all other major economies in all aspects.
