Alice Han

That's the yardstick.

But I remember, and you must have been in China at this time, a decade ago in the 2010s, China was in a competition across different cities to build the biggest skyscrapers in the world.

I think the last time we had the biggest skyscraper in the world was in 2015, Shanghai and the Peace Tower.

You see that from the Bund.

And since then, they have really had a hiatus.

Because to your point, James, there's been a crackdown on excessive local government vanity projects in infrastructure development.

Yeah, they didn't want the Washington consensus in architecture, right?

All right, James, you know what time it is.

It is prediction time.

As you look into your crystal ball for the future this week, what do you see?

That's such a great point.

I was running the historical figures earlier this week, and we've never seen a country in our modern history that has run as big a trade surplus as a share of GDP, its own GDP as China.

The U.S., even at its peak, and it was a net trade surplus country in its own right from 1870 to 1970.

At its peak, it was 1% of GDP, its trade surplus.

China's is 6%.

And if you're telling me that exports are going to continue and consumption is flat, that number, that ratio could rise, which, you know, again, this is a historical abnormality that we're currently living through.

So my prediction is more germane to the present.

I am befuddled by Trump's announcements.

I'm befuddled by a lot of them, but his announcements in particular about this May trip to China is,

As of yet, I do not believe that the Chinese government and foreign ministry have yet confirmed that that trip is going to happen.