Strictly speaking, the PRC is, since the fall of the SU, the singular territory on the world market that could rightfully inherit the title of ‘second world’. Albeit at the price of another ignorance, that there is no iron curtain at the moment, that CPC leadership learned from the demise of their SU counterparts and chose absorption into the world market of the ‘first world’ over economic isolation. So they must at least be called ‘first-and-a-half world’, which also reflects nicely how dependent the high wage countries are on their production. Anyway, ‘third world’ they are surely not, a helpless Cold War term nowadays. The disruption in supply chains is severe and the full consequence will only arrive with delay, 2022 and 23 will get even stiffer and the 10% increase right now, that one can see everywhere across the field, will be exceeded soon. The one who is waiting for relaxation and a return to a prepandemic global production will pay the most.