IT Trend for 2021: China retreats to Statism
"Politics Come First" (with Chinese energy policies).
Jack Ma, China's wealthiest man, offered parts of Ant to the Chinese government (as if they couldn't just take what they wanted already).
Mr. Xi doesn't trust the private sector -- and with good reason: by definition it's not communist. So, he is increasing the communist party's presence in businesses. Thus the Party decides... whatever it wants to. When and what to produce, what to pay workers, and what to charge people for the stuff they make. That's the endgame, anyway.
We already know communism in general, and Chinese communism as an example, doesn't believe in inalienable rights. Now we see that, by corollary, they also don't like the very market forces which shaped their growth explosion.
As you can already guess, I think this will affect IT. For one thing, investing in China as a tech innovator becomes more difficult when you have no idea if that investment will be well spent.
Now don't get me wrong -- I like to think that the USA is the only innovator in the universe. But it seems to me that innovation in general can be, ought to be, good for everyone to some degree. So hampering innovation (without a good reason) tends to not be a good thing.
Consider. Incremental improvements are awesome. Consider a 1% increase in the efficiency of solar cells, or a 1% increase in battery life, or storage capacity. That can be a game changer. Civilization lives on the margins. And for the past decade or so, China has contributed, and the world has benefited.
No more?
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