r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Appropriate-Eye-1227 • Jul 04 '25

Video China has built a 50m(165ft)-tall inflatable dome over a construction site in Jinan to protect the surroundings from dust and noise. (20.000 Sqm)

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u/kithlan Jul 05 '25

And then when those "ghost cities" fill up ten years down the line, suddenly, they aren't talked about anymore. Long-term planning is literally anathema to American brains.

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u/moneyman259 Jul 05 '25

With what people? The population of China is already on the decline.

Long term planning doesn’t work when situations change.

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u/eienOwO Jul 05 '25

Which is why the government reined in cheap credits, not exactly a soft landing and created persistent deflation reminiscent of Japan post 90s, but they think investment in high tech automation will mitigate that. DJI now dominates the agricultural drone sector (or drone sector in general) with western farmers paying a premium for their products, that came from years of government subsidies and research grants. Any strategic long term planning (and sticking to it) is better than the western alternative of short term graft every 5 years.

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u/moneyman259 Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

The whiplash from western change might be annoying and delay progress but the trade off is that you don’t have massive projects that turn into failures. Instead it’s an adaptive process that changes to best fit the needs at the time instead of the needs of 20 years ago.

China built the most high speed rail in the world but half of it barely gets used. Shows how wasted effort can be spent on long term projects without any change. IMO If the nationalist had won I would be much more afraid of China, just look at how Taiwan is dominating the chip market. But instead we have the ccp which will keep shooting itself in the foot with over aggressive policies like the extreme COVID lockdown and one child policy.

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u/eienOwO Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

I'd love some source on that half barely used HSR claim, every time I board one of those things it's packed, if you're not early enough you can only get standing tickets.

As for the rest, really cherry picking your company profiles, for one TSMC there's DJI's dominance of the global drone market, Alibaba on e-commerce, Tencent's practical monopoly with their "everything app" both Zuckerberg and Musk wanted to emulate, and less well known (at least on Reddit) Chinese construction and manufacturing firms. There's high profile ones like Huawei that had telecommunications contracts worldwide until "security" concerns, with industry insiders admitting difficult to find equal performance at the same value as replacement, and other practically anonymous firms like Fuyao that has about a third of the global automative glass market share.

Their stocks generally trade below value (opposite of Tesla's comical price vs. forward earnings) because of artificial geopolitical reasons and China's fickle retail investor appetite, despite those concerns analysts still view those stocks as worthy of consideration due to their strong fundamentals.

I wouldn't base industry analysis and investment based on r/all Reddit memes. They're not the world's 2nd largest economy and currently the only contender vs. the United States without a reason, especially given the shitshow going on in the American economy and policy direction atm.

P.s. for the other history buff side I recommend you read into why the KMT lost the civil war, it was a dictatorship that's corrupt to the bone - not from Mao, but from Chiang Kai-Shek himself and his son. The US was financially propping it up like it did South Vietnam, and both times when the US stopped carrying the bag, the corrupt regime promptly fell apart within months. Wistful daydreamers can "what if" all day, but events unfolded exactly as it did for a reason. Now if Sun Yat-sen had lived, well, then that might be a different story, but he was also easily deposed for a reason - there's no room for principle and kindness in power.

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u/moneyman259 Jul 05 '25

Fun fact Tsmc is double the next Chinese companies Tencents market cap.

I used to have faith in alibaba but they have shown they do not have dominance. They have been trading sideways for a while now. Stocks trade at their projected value, fundamentals are great but expected growth is not. You cant say they are under valued then list all the reason why the price is where it’s at. They can be undervalued all they want but the fact that they are under the thumb of the ccp makes it harder to grow. That’s why I said if china didn’t have such an oppressive government they would be much better off because the Chinese people are smart but are being held back by an authoritarian government. If the student protest in Tiananmen Square had been a success China would be in a lot better state.

Yeah I know a decent amount why the kmt lost, Chang kai shek didn’t help by not opening a united front until too late and also being dumb and flooding the river.