A truly universal basic income would indeed be surprising.
Something tells me the universality of such a system will be tied to social credit or some other measurement system to weed out the "bad thought" having Chinese folks.
The alternative is for a democratic nations to step forward and lead. The United States, and other western nations, are hamstrung by corporate-purchased-politicians who will sabatoge efforts to step forward.
Those corporations are giving China the head start.
As a westerner, I am given the choice of corporate indentured servitude, or cheering for China. I would love a world where the west can lead, but apparently we don't live in that world.
The lesser of evils seems to be to embrace China's global leadership.
Never thought I'd take this stance, but here we are. No one else is helping as my generation drowns in debt.
I love the silence of the tankies who can't figure out how to twist this to fit within their wilfully ignorant insistence that China is a communist country lol...
Article has some logic that makes sense, as does UBI in general.
However currently China is still far away from this, welfare is low compared to most european countries, lack of reliable welfare has contributed to their massive housing bubble, now deflating. Also, I read that Xi J is anti-welfare.
It isn't mentioned in this article, but Chinese planning is very specific about the idea of robots taking over the economy and replacing the shrinking number of humans. Another reason for thinking UBI might work there first.
They're not really likely to pass the West any time soon on that, though. We're still king when it comes to high tech and innovation, just as a byproduct of accumulated institutional knowledge and an economic system that prioritises fostering innovation over almost all else.
It isn't looking like a great moment in China, I'll give you that. Banning shortselling is a doubly bad sign, because it indicates a major issue and is also guaranteed not to help solve it.
