This is incorrect. In fact, privatization did happen in China. All of the big tech and renewable energy companies you hear about including EV, solar, AI and robotics are all private companies.

The existence of private companies is not privatization. Privatization is the sale of public goods, services, infrastructure, and enterprises to private, for-profit entities. Under neoliberalism, this becomes the overriding priority of the state that takes precedence over all socially useful functions of the state. There is nothing off-limits in neoliberalism’s privatization regime. The bulk of China’s economy, especially the “commanding heights” remain under state and party control. This is entirely incompatible with neoliberalism.

However, you are still missing the fact that China had been able to avoid austerity for the most part because of the tremendous exchange of cheap Chinese goods being sent to the Western countries. Many other countries (especially post-Soviet Eastern European countries) also tried to balance their budget but simply did not have the vast labor pool to dominate the export market to matter.

This is the real outflow of China’s wealth - an immense outflow of real resources and labor for decades that could have been spent to improve the lives of the Chinese people. This is the reason why people in the West can enjoy cheap goods.

I agree with and acknowledge all of the above. That’s the nature of being a colonized, developing country. It’s not Chinese neoliberalism.