Your story illustrates why they are focusing on pollution control and developing the Social Credit System.

"..the Social Credit System will focus on four areas: "honesty in government affairs" (政务诚信), "commercial integrity" (商务诚信), "societal integrity" (社会诚信), and "judicial credibility" (司法公信). Media coverage has thus far focused mostly on the rating of individual citizens (which falls under "societal integrity"). However, the Chinese government‘s plans go beyond that and also include plans for credit scores for all businesses operating in China."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System

China's too late.

China's Debt to ratio is a staggering 833%

http://www.baldingsworld.com/2017/10/23/everything-we-think-...

Why China Lost About $3.8 Trillion To Capital Flight In The Last Decade

(FDI was only 1.3T over the same decade, leading to a massive loss)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insideasia/2017/02/22/china-cap...

So no money.....and recently it prevented South Korean companies from withdrawing assets from China. Now companies around the world knows. Who's gonna invest in China now?

http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/english/news/national/19352-e...

I think there's an important distinction missing here.

First, NET FDI (foreign direct investment) into China was 1.3 trillion USD over the last decade, not nominal: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.KLT.DINV.CD.WD?locat....

FDI is a pretty imperfect measure for a short period of time. If a Chinese company buys foreign assets, say mines in Africa or forests in South America, that counts as a net outflow. In the long run though, those investments may well pay off handsomely. For a rapidly developing country with a high savings rate, there's no inherent reason why Chinese companies investing abroad should be an indication of doom for China.

As someone who regularly does business with Chinese companies, it has been my experience that it has never been harder to remove currency from China. It is true that capital controls have become increasingly tight.

Edit:

Additionally, given the regulatory difficulties of foreign companies investing in China, it's not surprising that outflows of investment by Chinese companies outsize incoming foreign investment into China.

if someone is interested in the actual situation, the following videos are a good starting point

Davos 2017 - China's Pivot to World Markets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8HsNfQIZQs

Davos 2017 - Strategic Update: The Future of Energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wvln5Ce_Sk

Just for your info, China has been said to crush by the west media for over 30 years or even longer since PRC founded.

China's also been said to be an unstoppable juggernaut that will rule the world for the next century by western media.

Funny, that.

That 833% figure is for financial assets and gives the UK's figure at 1008%. It just indicates that banks are doing loan swaps and the like.

The semi communist system actually makes China quite stable. In the west if the mortgage holders can't repay the bank kind of goes bust, in China the government would just lend it more money. Well... I guess the west bails out too but more so in China I think.

These four areas are quite interesting. Each defines a specific role a person holds in society. If nothing other than adopting formalized views and conversations along these roles, the West would benefit. The US appears to be failing in all of them, in aggregate.

This is inevitable in any fast developing economy. There is chaos and there is growth. You will see the exact same conditions in western economies when they developed.

Its because they offer opportunity that people flock there. And China has 1.3 billion to deal with, this will challenge any government to an extent that cannot be underestimated or brushed aside.

Not many people on this thread are thinking or have a basic Empathy like you do, China is still not 'stable'.It's still on a fast track. There are problems need to be addressed. But If you look it via History scope. It's has mainly done well.

Yea I think we in the West are too quick to forget our rampant corruption and pollution directly after our industrial revolutions. It'll take China awhile to catch up in livability, but they'll get there once they get richer.

I really dislike this the west got to pollute while developing so other countries should be able to also mentality.

It's apple and oranges. People then didn't have technologies to choose like we do, didn't realise the impact of pollution, nor did things on the scale we are today.

Its cherry picking the bits the want for an economic advantage. If countries want to use the 'they polluted before' argument then they should go back to steam trains and gas lighting etc. Otherwise maybe the west will say look at what they did to get economic growth, now its our turn...

Sorry for the rant but I find this such a poor excuse. All countries should be held to better standards. We seem to forget a key component of capitalism is for the government to create a level playing field. And ability to pollute (or not) the enviroment should be a global tenant for all who engage in the open market.

There weren't over three billion people living in the west during the time you speak of as there currently are in Asia. There aren't even that many people in the west now.

China, India, Indonesia, etc "catching up" is a great goal to work towards but not at the cost of ecosystem collapse and permanently wreaking the oceans.

Seems pretty much like India.

Same issues. I think that will be with any country aiming for a very high rate of growth. Rapid progress is often chaotic.

What if you don't know any English? Should you stay put in China or move to America if you have the chance?

I know many Chinese that manage to live in America with minimal knowledge of English. There are many sizeable Chinatowns and "bubble" communities in America where a Chinese/Taiwanese person could immerse himself/herself in and never really have to deal with English.

How do these people get visas?

they have relatives in the usa.

Or EB5. If you have $500k you can buy in. Apparently about 99% of the 10k issued each year go to Chinese.

Or move to Taiwan if you have the chance.

Taiwan is lovely but still suffers from air pollution. Much of it is local pollution, but some also that drifts over from China. I found it quite challenging when I was there.

But the food is great, so there's that.

That same pollution drifts over South Korea as well.

The same pollution drifts to Los Angeles.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/03/518323094/...