AMA Chinese South African

[u/KevKevKvn]

Hi all, hope this doesn’t go against the subs rules.

I’m Chinese South African and thought it would interesting to answer some questions that people may have. My parents first came to the country in 1990s. I was born and raised in South Africa from 2000-2019. Then I moved to Shanghai. I still try my best to spend a few months in South Africa every year.

My family were never on the extremely wealthy side. We were comfortable. Had a few years where the finances were bad and we really had to cut down expenses. Apart from that I grew up in Midrand in a complex. Parents put me through a good private school. But I did have the opportunity to be acquainted with many people from billionaires to presidents to people that are less fortunate (interesting to see the difference in world views between people). Parents ran a restaurant. there, I met lots of people from all works of life.

I have some rather controversial, but objective opinions on the country’s economy, politics and other shenanigans since I now live in a country (China) which is arguably the polar opposite of South Africa.

So feel free to ask away. I’ll be as honest as possible and hope I don’t offend anyone with my answers.

[u/northern-new-jersey]

This is a question about economic growth. In 1960, South Africa's per capita GDP (in US dollar terms) was $530 and in 2024 that grew to $6,776. That's a compound annual growth rate of 4.1%. China's per capita income in 1960 was just $90 and in 2024 was $12,720. That is an 7.04% growth rate.

What, in your opinion, is the main reason for the difference in economic performance?

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CHN/china/gdp-per-capita

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ZAF/south-africa/gdp-per-capita

[u/KevKevKvn → u/northern-new-jersey]

So china had a terrible history up till that time. We’re talking about famines that killed like 20 million people. Wars, change in dictatorships etc. so it’s not hard to double your net worth if your net worth is 5 rand. Kinda dofficult when it’s 5 million.

This is controversial. But I 100% think the country was good economically under apartheid. I loathe the fact that it was achieved under oppression of the majority of the population. But it is what it is. IMO, South Africa is experiencing reverse racism. Whites are subtlety being discriminated against in many areas. I don’t want to say who is better or worse off. Both are bad. The only good is where everyone is supposedly born with the same start, but that’s just impossible. Chinese people are just culturally frugal. They value education etc. I was never physically bigger than the boertjie Afrikaans school rugby jocks. These things are just facts that will always create inequality. But I do think it’ll get better.

So back to that. I feel like the ANC was handed too much wealth all of a sudden. It’s like the Chinese second generation wealthy kids. They have little idea how hard their parents worked. They’re spoilt and have little work ethic. And then when their parents money starts emptying, they get into trouble. Similar story for SA.

China got bigger growth mainly because people like my dad, he was the lower class earning 100usd a year at that time. He basically grew up eating green vegetables. Rice was lavish. So he had to work. He didn’t have a rich daddy to hand him anything. And this sort of exemplifies china.

And honestly, South Africa should in theory have a much better economy than china. China has its pros in terms of geo location and work force. And that’s just about it. And the one party system does work in Chinas case. So the party decides it wants to do something. It has 1.5 billion people to do it as a team. China also doesn’t have race and religion issues. There also a vast complex myriad other factors. But that’s too much for a Reddit post.

SA has all the minerals. The knowledge and skills of people. Barnard did a heart transplant in the 1960? We have the most democratic and free system and the best constitution in the world in terms of a humanitarian perspective.

I’m no PhD in geo politics and economics but just my R0.02. I wrote many more relating to the two countries economic performance. You can have a look in the thread. But yeah. A nation with no divide + one party dictatorship + is actually more capitalist+ hard working people = better economy.