The Chinese call it a “Tofu-dreg project” or buildings made from Tofu. It means a badly constructed building or shoddy workmanship, and there are examples all over social media of crumbling concrete or cracks running through apartment buildings. Tofu-dreg projects could also be a symbol of China today. It might look impressive on the outside, but underneath, it’s falling apart. Experts told us that this would be “The Chinese Century,” however Xi Jinping’s “China dream” is dying, because of several factors. 2023 was a bad year for the Chinese government in just about every way, and 2024 does not promise to be much better. Last year was China’s worst economically since 1976. A study that the government tried to suppress found that as many as one billion Chinese may be living in poverty. “There are a lot of things that are going wrong that are fixable, but fundamentally, there are more things going wrong that aren’t fixable,” according to Josh Birenbaum at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, who says international businesses and capital are continuing to flee China because staying has become too risky.
“Companies are increasingly seeing the writing on the wall in China. The environment is no longer conducive to business. Going from a hundred billion in foreign direct investment to negative 11 billion over the last 7 quarters is just remarkable,” Birenbaum said. Youth unemployment is so high the government has stopped reporting it. Increasing numbers of youth have given up on the future and are “lying flat,” which means to be unemployed and unmarried. Basically, they’re dropping out. China expert Gordon Chang says, “China is right now in a state of turmoil. There’s a sense of gloom which has pervaded Chinese society.” China’s demographics are in free fall. Last year, for the first time since the 1960s, more Chinese died than were born. By 2040, China is expected to have more elderly than the entire population of the United States: 400 million. Chang says, “young women are turning their backs on society. And so, they’re saying, ‘Look, I’m not getting married, I’m not having kids, I’m just opting out.'” China’s stock markets have lost between $6 and $7 trillion in value since 2021. The nation’s construction and real estate sector is continuing to crater.
On the foreign policy front, China’s intimidation campaign against Taiwan before its recent presidential election failed. Beijing ramped up incursions into Taiwan’s airspace and even launched a missile with a satellite toward Taiwan right before election day. The Taiwanese responded by electing a new president firmly opposed to reunification with the mainland. Chang says, “This means that Taiwan is moving away from China.” Purges in China’s communist party leadership and military suggest Xi fears opposition. Chang fears that Xi’s only way out of the malaise is to “win a big war.” Birenbaum says without a massive political pivot, China faces a grim future. He told us, “I would think that in the next, two to four years, they will muddle, and after that they will implode.” Just like those shoddy building materials from a Tofu-dreg project.
Source: CBNNews
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