The Chinese economy is in trouble. Exports, manufacturing output, and investment are all down. Unemployment, particularly among young people is up. Provincial debt is now at a record $8 trillion while a burgeoning property crisis has eliminated a once reliable source of revenue for local governments.
The financial difficulties that China is now experiencing have direct implications on dozens, if not hundreds of developing countries around the world that have come to rely on Chinese demand to bolster their own economies.
Lizzi Li, an economist and reporter at the Chinese language television network Wall Street TV, joins Eric & Cobus from New York to discuss what’s behind the economic slowdown in China and why it’s critical that policymakers and other stakeholders in the Global South learn quickly how to adapt to the new economic realities that are taking shape.
Show Notes:
- Foreign Affairs: China’s Economic Slowdown Was Inevitable by Yasheng Huang
- Nikkei Asia: Xi Jinping faces impasse in jump-starting China’s economy by Yuri Momoi
- Barron’s: China Is in Trouble, but It’s No Disaster. Don’t Run Scared. by Reshma Kapadia
About Lizzi Li:
Lizzi C. Lee is an economist turned journalist. She graduated from MIT’s Ph.D. program in Economics before joining the New York-based independent Chinese media outlet Wall St TV. She is currently the host of The Signal Live with Lizzi Lee, powered by The China Project, where she interviews the most knowledgeable minds on China for analysis of the ever-evolving business and technology ecosystem. She also serves as an honorary junior fellow of the Chinese Economy program at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.
