CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

Despite prophecies of gloom and doom, China is moving toward rebound – through stimulus lite.

The “plum rain” that envelops Shanghai every summer – a confusing mix of drizzle, fog and smog – is a handy metaphor for the murkiness that currently enshrouds China’s economy. A drumbeat of negative views about China’s economic prospects dominates the country’s image. The financial weekly Barron’s recently proclaimed in a cover story that “it [...]

China’s State Council’s approval of the Wenzhou Comprehensive Financial Reform pilot zone on March 28 marks a breakthrough in both private lending and private out-bound investment. Although details of its regulations are still in the making, the general trend is already set. The most significant point of this policy is the opening up of individual [...]

For the purpose of curbing the excessive rise of housing prices, the Chinese government came forward in 2010 with a series of macro regulation and control measures including implementation of a property-purchasing limitation policy in some cities. It has also put into execution corresponding financial policies including tighter control of lending to real estate development [...]

Ever since fiscal decentralization in 1994, local governments have been saddled with a smaller slice of the revenue pie and a bigger slice of the expenditure pie, leading to a desperate search for revenue streams.  In the last 15 years, the real estate sector has emerged as a savior for local governments—land leases, transfer fees, [...]

Today, fears are growing that China and India are about to be the next victims of the ongoing global economic carnage. This would have enormous consequences. Asia’s developing and newly industrialized economies grew at an 8.5% average annual rate over 2010-11 – nearly triple the 3% growth elsewhere in the world. If China and India [...]