This actually makes no sense because China is still a developing country on all acounts.
How about their military spending, or FDI spending?
What about it? It’s a large country so its military expenditure would naturally be large. It’s like 1/3 of US military expenditure.
What is FDI spending? You mean R&D?
There is literally nothing in China that’s “developed”. Some cities are close enough, but you can argue the same for many cities of developing countries like Moscow.
Second highest in the world, if they can afford to spend that money on weapons they don’t need preferential treatment
I mean FDI
High speed rail system, literacy rate, life expectancy, military…
India is the third highest in the world. Is India a developed country too?
What FDI?
That has nothing to do with development status. Canada has no HSR system, is it a developing country?
That might have been a decent parameter a century ago, but now? North Korea’s literacy rate is 100% too.
Still lower than developed countries. It’s higher than America but that says more about America.
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Just nitpicking, but their literacy is a lie. Come on, junkie.
What does China manufacture (thanks globalist corporatists for destroying western manufacturing over the last 50 years) that the west cannot function well without?
Antibiotics, components for power plants, colbolt, neodymium…
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Just depends on the narrative they are trying to push that minute. they enjoy playing both sides. and the world is naive enough to enable that.
Aaaaaand right on cue, Macron from France is showing up cap in hand with the usual industry suspects (Airbus etc) wanting to cut some deals with Beijing. So much for “derisking.”
Guy
Whenever this happens, on a scale of 0~10, how surprised are you? 
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With France, less than zero.
Hopefully Macron’s pension reform gambit (leading to widespread protests) will help force this guy out.
Guy
China wants to get to the next level. They can’t do that making washing machines and the chips that power them and solar panels. They need value added trade.
France speaks for the EU, right? Trade is better than war. Trade more with the left hand and leash Putin with the right. That’s my guess.
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Further exposure to China just gives Beijing more leverage if / when things go badly.
Guy
French politics is quite fucked… u either have the far right Front Nationale or almost nothing on the left (quite fsr left). Macron was the only credible alternative.
Why do you suppose when things go badly they’d break in favor of China? 
I’m no fan of Macron, he’s the start of Europe turning to China after being screwed by the US.
Originally the EU was a way to avoid Europe being dominated by the US however it never happened. U.K. now out! Times are a changing.
Industry would be further reliant on the Chinese market and / or Chinese manufacturers as part of their supply chain. If / when things go badly, they would in short be exposed and they would almost certainly pressure French leaders to remain friendly to Beijing even as Beijing a) breaks international agreements regarding HK; b) commits genocide in Xinjiang; c) you fill in the blanks here regarding Taiwan.
So @jdsmith I would ask you: if France can turn a blind eye to a) and b) why do you think they would turn a blind eye to c)? It’s a genuine question, asked in good faith.
Guy
**of, relating to, or being a product whose value has been increased especially by special manufacturing, marketing, or processing
value-added goods
Value-added is the difference between the price of a product or service and the cost of producing it
Value-Added Product: What It Means in Industry and Marketing.
How is that not value-added trade?
He does seem to be burning up his remaining political capital. I wonder how much longer he will last.
Guy
The world always favors slave labor. one of the few constants that transcends gender, race, religion and politics. One could predict the world being favorable to china because in recent history, despite crimes against humanity, that has been the case. overwhelmingly. and there is precious little showing we have changed our ways. as a species or as nations. in any meaningful way. regardless of all the non-action chatter spewed on tv and in print 