Why Western predictions on China were mostly wrong in past decade
‘Ideological bias, problematic political science’ cause failed forecasts
When commenting on China, some in the West only see a country constantly at the cusp of crisis, ranging from predictions of a "China hard landing" or "China collapse," to "COVID is China's Chernobyl moment" and "the end of Communist Party of China's (CPC) rule." Over the past decade, whenever China encountered difficulties and challenges, some Western politicians, scholars and so-called China experts always repeat wild prophecies about the fate of China and the CPC. Needless to say, none was even remotely right.
Far from it, China under the leadership of CPC has overcome various challenges, become stronger than ever and is closer to the center of the global stage than ever. Even under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has showed a much better performance than the West in saving lives and controlling the epidemic since the beginning, and its economic growth is still faster than most major economies, Chinese experts said.
The wrong predictions about China in the past decade have shown an interesting trend of Western understanding of China: from downplaying China's development and exaggerating the problems that China has, to recognizing the fact of China's rise, and now to the anxiety of how to deal with a powerful China with a unique political system and culture that is very different from the West. In other words, from the China Collapse Theory to the China Threat Theory, said analysts.