China is following the China model, not Singapore. The goal is a to create a superpower that challenges the West.
It’s not just economic, it’s social, political, miltiary, etc.
What they are promoting is the China model of growth, but don’t worry about personal freedoms, minority groups, or global norms regarding trade, individual country rights, maritime rights, etc.
While at the moment this has been very successful for China for the last 3 decades, there is a paradigm shift on-going. We are clearly heading towards a Cold War. What could happen is that the Indo-Pacific splits into two spheres where open trade, freedom of navigation, and easy access are no longer allowed. Either you are in the Sino sphere or the Anti-Sino (Australia, US, Japan, S Korea, India?) sphere. Already companies are contingency planning for multiple production lines inside/outside of China.
Either way, unless you’re part of the wealthy or ruling class, there is going to a net negative to quality of life.
On a side note, this came out last week: https://www.uscc.gov/Annual_Reports/2018-annual-report
Inside was this tidbit
“Congress direct the U.S. Department of Commerce and other relevant government agencies to prepare an unclassified public report, with a classified annex, examining and assessing the adequacy of U.S. export control policy for dual-use technology as it relates to U.S. treatment of Hong Kong and China as separate customs areas”
So all that needs to be done is to treat any Sino sphere country as part of the China custom area and severely limit what types of goods are allowed to be exported.
