Xi Jinping's first major economic-reform plans a decade ago were his boldest, but their failure has raised critical questions about what comes next: a slow drift toward stagnation or a more severe crunch?

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first major reform plans a decade ago were also his boldest, envisaging a transition to a Western-style free market economy driven by services and consumption by 2020.

The 60-point agenda was meant to fix an obsolete growth model better suited to less developed countries - however, most of those reforms have gone nowhere leaving the economy largely reliant on older policies that have only added to China’s massive debt pile and industrial overcapacity.

The failure to restructure the world’s second-largest economy has raised critical questions about what comes next for China.

While many analysts see a slow drift towards Japan-style stagnation as the most likely outcome, there is also the prospect of a more severe crunch.

  • @randon31415English
    63•1 year ago

    I’ve been hearing about ghost towns and the coming Chinese economic collapse now for ten years. It will probably happen after Trump is behind bars at this rate.

    • MinekPo1 [She/Her]English
      27•1 year ago

      FYI:

      Many developments initially criticized as ghost cities did materialize into economically vibrant areas when given enough time to develop, such as Pudong, Zhujiang New Town, Zhengdong New Area, Tianducheng and malls such as the Golden Resources Mall and South China Mall. While many developments failed to live up to initial lofty promises, most of them eventually became occupied when given enough time.

      Reporting in 2018, Shepard noted that “Today, China’s so-called ghost cities that were so prevalently showcased in 2013 and 2014 are no longer global intrigues. They have filled up to the point of being functioning, normal cities”.

      - Wikipedia (Under-occupied developments in China)