Why China's Economy is Finally Slowing Down

1,439,447
0
Published 2024-03-21
To try everything Brilliant has to offer for free for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/wendover
You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

Youtube:    / wendoverproductions  
Instagram: Instagram.com/sam.from.wendover
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/WendoverPro
Sponsorship Enquiries: [email protected]
Other emails: [email protected]
Reddit: Reddit.com/r/WendoverProductions

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References
[1] issuu.com/unhabitat/docs/2499_alt
[2] www.people.vcu.edu/~wwu/publications/Cities-Shangh…
[3] www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/28408/…
[4] www.cato.org/blog/anatomy-chinas-housing-crisis-en…
[5] www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27697/w2…
[6] www.xinhuanet.com/english/download/Xi_Jinping's_re…

All Comments (21)
  • @SageMadsen
    If China's economic crisis triggers a market crash or a financial crisis, it could send shockwaves through the stock markets worldwide. I’m worried about my investment of over $600K stocks. Is this a time to consider diversifying my portfolios?
  • @zukaro
    Reminds me of Canada's housing and innovation situation. The money gets tied up in low risk real estate instead of risky innovations, and thus Canada becomes a technological laggard and slowly falls behind the rest of the world.
  • The other part of this that is missed is that local governments were funding themselves via land sales. They can't sell land if the real estate market is in trouble. Worse still they put this money towards GDP growth which many times consisted of infrastructure projects that are not delivering. This has piled up debt for local governments in an uncontrolled way.
  • @Keenath
    Any situation where the only people buying homes are people who already own multiple homes is already broken, it's just a question of when that actually hits the companies where it hurts.
  • @Default78334
    As I used to explain to people, these property developments were basically giant concrete bitcoins sold to Chinese investors who didn't see any better options for preserving and growing their wealth.
  • In light of the ongoing global economic crisis, it is crucial for everyone to prioritize investing in diverse sources of income that are not reliant on the government. This includes exploring opportunities in stocks, gold, silver, and digital currencies. Despite the challenging economic situation, it remains a favorable time to consider these investments.
  • @kortyEdna825
    The current market/economy is unnecessarily tougher for boomers/senior citizens, I’m used to just buying and holding assets which doesn’t seem applicable to the current rollercoaster market plus inflation is catching up with my portfolio. I’m really worried about survival after retirement.
  • @elRandomTk
    This is a sincere suggestion, I paused at 10:00 when you were going to talk about the 'how' but not explained the true 'why' the Cjinese people were buying so much houses. As an investment yes, but the deep reason is that China has not developed other ways to invest, for middle and high class. A wealthy Chinese can't invest in the financial market for example, thus housing market became the way to do it. Just an addition, I'm a big fan of the channel, even this video's production value is top notch :D
  • Evergrande opened a EV company cause china would pay the companies for each EV even if they didn't sell the car to anyone. that's why you find videos or tons of fields of EVs in china that nobody is buying.
  • @_Zekken
    This is happening in New Zealand as well, at a smaller scale. Housing is being all bought up by investors or people looking to make money at an increasingly large rate. The value has balooned far outside the actual utility value of the proporty. This is compounded by many extra cases of chinese buyers of course who were buying our property up the same way the video said they bought theres, from overseas, and leaving them empty up until the govt banned overseas buyers in 2017. But those already bought houses are still there, and still empty. The bubble is going to burst at some point, and its gonna be a shitshow
  • The real estate investment craze was real. The Chinese were known to buy up and hoard apartments in Hong Kong where demand for housing is always strong with supply being limited due to land issues, causing the already insane real estate prices to go up even further and exacerbating the problem. A lot of these apartments weren't inhabited and everybody knew they're for investment. Adults learned of it first-hand and teenagers studied it and the related politics at school as housing is still one of the most pressing social issues in Hong Kong.
  • to be fair, the average salary in China can not be easily compared with other countries since there is a major gap between the rural and urban areas.. that gap is not that much profound in most other countries..
  • @aertailiu
    Good video. I heard they say China's economy slowed down in 2008, 2012, 2016 etc... yet they became a super power in front of my very eyes...
  • @charlocharlie
    The crunchy and distorted background music is mega annoying in this one. Go easy on the normalization plugin.
  • @matheusp572
    I love the videos but starting to find the background music distracting. It’s not the first time I’ve noticed that, but this time was the worse. It should not be nearly as loud as Sam’s voice
  • @Dr_Larken
    2:51 I made it this far in the entire two minutes and 51 seconds I was waiting for the phrase “Now, it’s time to learn how money works”! I’m pretty sure because of the voice!
  • @Synergy108
    Those graphs were beautiful and extremely easy to understand. I just had to say that.
  • @darktitan8085
    Thanks for showing all the info with the least bs, no clickbait, no shouting random pieces of info on the screen so as to force the viewer to take your words without trying to question you; while still making the video really engaging. This is why your channel is worth following.