NATO leaders are expected to call out China for its support of Russia’s war machine at their summit in Washington. However, they are divided over their approach to the Indo-Pacific region.
A planned economy focussed on long term (economic) power vs. market driven short term incentives led to a lot of indispensable goods beinganufactured only in China.
Now the dependence for critical supplies is an economic weapon that can be wielded by China. Even a lot of base products for medicine come from china, let's see what happens.
Chinese people do compete for basic necessities though; stores aren't passing out goods for free and rent/mortgages are very real.
Is there something you are familiar with that they don't have to pay for? I suppose health care and public education, but that's not particularly unique to China.
Deng Xiaoping, when laying out the market reforms of the 80s, was quoted as saying “it doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches the mice”