276. China’s Zombie Economy and Capital Crackdown (Patreon)

We start with a visit to that smart city we all love, New Orleans, and see how the police department’s facial recognition surveillance is going. Then we revisit China, this time to lay out the broader conditions of its zombie economy and attempts by the state to reassert its power over capital by enforcing discipline on the tech and real estate sector, and giving them strong guidance about how they can work to better serve the state’s interest. We discuss this further in the context of China’s antitrust crackdown on tech companies—we might be envious of the means, but we should be wary of the goals.

Stuff we reference

• NOPD use of facial recognition leads to zero arrests in nine months https://veritenews.org/2023/07/26/nopd-use-of-facial-recognition-leads-to-zero-arrests-in-nine-months/
• Zombie Economy https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/zombie-economy
• Why Is China’s Economy Stumbling? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/opinion/china-economy-decline.html
• What Comes Next as China’s Tech Crackdown Winds Down https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-24/what-s-next-as-china-s-tech-crackdown-winds-down#xj4y7vzkg

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)