Two views of China’s future

Before the global economic crisis, unstoppable Chinese growth was taken as a given—the biggest transforming force in international commerce. Now, nothing seems so certain. These contrasting in-depth looks at China see two possibilities. Author Minxin Pei forecasts stagnation, since China has neglected basics, like its service economy, in favour of “excessively high investment in fixed assets.” But economist Jonathan Anderson argues that China is more resilient, partly because it is surprisingly insulated from the world slump, with only “around eight per cent of the mainland workforce is employed in export industries.”

National Interest