While that's vacuously true on account of the fact that being rich is fundamentally good no matter where you are, I'd argue that China is even better to live in if you're rich.
Any examples of rich people doing things in the US that’d be persecuted in China? Donating to the Libertarian party perhaps? Most of the time I’d imagine the rich are aligned with the status quo.
Avoiding political persecution (at least what I meant by it) is more about kissing the right asses and not stepping on the wrong persons toes. Rich in the US does not mean living in a minefield.
Participating in a religion, criticizing the communist party, speaking out about forbidden topics and more. Mostly though the system will take you down for not paying enough bribes or pissing off the wrong officials.
No. You never know when the commie nomenclature decides you're the enemy of the state, strips you out of your wealth and sends the execution bus at your front door.
" I'd argue that China is even better to live in if you're rich."
? If you're rich in the US, you stay rich as long as you keep your money.
In China, your RMB is worth what the Party says it's worth, and you can be arbitrarily destroyed for political reasons.
Excepting issues like 'cheap labour' - on most other secular issues, America is a better place to be rich, once you're rich. (ie notwithstanding non culturally secular issues like the fact most people generally prefer their home country for obvious reasons)
The RMB is a fictitious currency because a) the central bank is politically controlled b) there are currency controls c) lending is driven by the state and d) it's opaque.
The Chinese government has magical monetary policy powers, they can do anything.
The US has a fair bit of transparency, no political control and no capital controls. That adds up to a fairly 'fair market value' for USD. They can get away with shenanigans, but not remotely like China.
The Euro is the strongest of the big currencies, mostly by virtue of the fact many countries share a currency, and they are all afraid the other would print money and play games ... so in effect you get super strict rules.
Euros are backed by assets according to rules. There's some sneakyness, but it's all papered over with rules.
The USD is backed by the US gov, and since 2007 a lot of real estate. Also, because it's a seigneurage currency, it's kind of backed by the fact everyone around the world uses it.
The RMB is just whatever the party wants it to be worth.
China wants everyone to respect the RMB, they want to make more international transactions etc. but for that the rest of the world needs to see it's reliable. But in order for that, China has to play by a set of rules and not play harry potter with money. But they want to keep the magic wand (it's rational for them to want that power), so they will have a hard time making RMB go much further than their immediate periphery. Nobody wants to hold RMB.