{"id":13963,"date":"2024-04-22T06:30:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T06:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=13963"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:01:35","slug":"anne-stevenson-yang-on-40-years-of-the-chinese-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/anne-stevenson-yang-on-40-years-of-the-chinese-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Anne Stevenson-Yang on 40 years of the Chinese economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anne Stevenson-Yang is originally from Washington DC. She moved to Beijing in 1993 to work for the US-China Business Council. In the next quarter century, she became one of the best-known foreigners in China, starting businesses in publishing, software and online media. Now back in the US, she runs J Capital Research USA and found time to publish not one, but two books \u2013 Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy<\/em> and a collection of short stories, Hello, Kitty<\/em> (both published by Bui Jones Books, 2024).<\/p>\n

Anne passed through London in March to launch her books at Hatchard\u2019s Piccadilly, an occasion that brought a plethora of the UK\u2019s Old China Hands out the woodwork. Paul French caught up with her between a glass of wine and a book signing queue to talk about some of the current economic flashpoints in China \u2013 property, ghost cities, where power resides and top-down control, among other issues.<\/p>\n

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After looking back at China over the last 30 or 40 years, you tackle some of the big issues facing the economy now. Looking at the issues of property and local government debt, you argue that, though debt in and of itself is not necessarily a problem, the lack of a control valve in China is a big issue. Can you explain what you mean by that?<\/h4>\n

That\u2019s a complicated issue. I think local debt in China is the economic expression of a deep structural schism between central and local authorities, and expresses the fundamental nature of the CCP, which is that of an occupation force in an empire. Central authorities collect almost all tax revenues and then give back a bunch of the money, which drops through four levels of government before it reaches the hands of local authorities, who are mandated to provide infrastructure and services.<\/p>\n

Central authorities also hold the keys to personal advancement and mobility, and local officials follow mandates in order to achieve those things. Those mandates fulfil central-level objectives of visible growth and so focus on productive capacity, not on services. Local party reps build unneeded \u201cindustrial parks\u201d and neglect education and welfare. The natural result has been borrowing, with the unstated assumption that the money might not be paid back.<\/p>\n