The story behind this one is that I was actually asked by a publication to write it back in late 2022 after they heard in one of my interviews that I thought China could potentially surprise everyone by winning the UBI race. They wanted it to be quite short and clock in at under 900 words. I did that, and there was some back and forth between me and the editor with revised versions…. Read the article here.
Why China Could Surprise the World by Being the First Country to Adopt Universal Basic Income
All ok apart your blind believe that you live in a liberal democracy! The system is rigged and in the west it is set to maintain with propaganda and fear to fall in poverty the power controlled by a hierarchical class system.
You may be right about China though: that system (as well authoritarian in many way but at least non-hypocrite), may find a tool in UBI to fulfill its people centered mission in coordination with contemporary new advanced control systems (vulgarly called AI)…😊
As a specialist of French social protection, I often read Bien newsletters. the one about China adopting a universal basic income is nonsense. It is nonsense because its author uses the term universal basic income with regard to China in a sense that is entirely alien to the meaning of the concept, as promoted by its creators. Not anything can pass for “UBI”. Kind regards
Jean-Claude Barbier (University Paris 1).
Hello there, would you mind to ellaborate just a little bit? It seems you have a very important point to make about a very important topic!
The author defines UBI as a “regularly provided cash payment distributed without conditions to all individuals within a defined community”. I fail to see how that is an “entirely alien” conceptualization.
Surely the current chinese work-centered Dibao program is not an UBI. But distributing the profits of state-owned enterprises equally across the board (as the Bank of China economist proposed) is very close to what der Veen and Van Parijs proposed in 1986.
World United by UBINCOME
NO WARS,NO POVERTY.
SMART CITIES BUILDINGS…2030AD (^_^)
For me the clincher in this argument is the need for China to develop a consuming class for its internal market. Just how the entrenched interests in the Chinese system would react remains to be seen, Whether Ji has such absolute power I do not know but certainly it would be a small circle. Also, a large proportion of the Chinese population at the lower income level would endorse it.