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Having a very Chinese time - by Theo Bleier

theombl.substack.com · 3,241 words · saved by 7 readers

Observations from my pilgrimage to Shenzhen

The predominant view in the United States is that the Chinese government is authoritarian and their motivations are driven by a desire to beat us. My recent visit made me believe that these are symptoms of far more interesting motivations. China’s malls are massive. We visited Guangzhou for a day and spent part of our day in a mall with an amusement park and gokarting track inside. “Shopping is the national past-time,” said my friend. There is a lot of credence to this claim given that every mall we visited was completely packed with people. The version of capitalism practiced in China, in…

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