And contrary to Fatema Z. Sumar, expressed in her article in New Republic, I think the primary consequence of increased federal development aid to China’s neighbors would be to make rich people in those countries much richer. She assumes that development aid actually causes the recipients’ economies to grow. The evidence suggests something different. As H. L. Mencken put it, there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong
What actually helps countries to grow is adopting economic reform. That’s what produced the remarkable growth of China, South Korea, and Japan. China’s mercantilist policies are now choking off that strategy.
Political reform is helpful, too, but that’s the subject of another post.
