Xu Hongcai, Deputy Director, Economic Policy Commission
Oct 25, 2022
After the 20th Party Congress, relations with the U.S., Europe and Japan are likely to improve, as China continues to pursue high-quality development and the integration of domestic demand with supply-side structural reforms.
Zhang Jun, Dean, School of Economics, Fudan University
Oct 12, 2022
Last January, China’s government forecast that the country’s economy – which, at the time, was experiencing a strong rebound after the initial pandemic slowdown – would grow by 5.5% in 2022. But by the second quarter, unfortunately, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 had forced the government to implement emergency containment measures in its most economically dynamic cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
Christopher A. McNally, Professor of Political Economy, Chaminade University
Sep 30, 2022
China’s economic troubles in 2022, exacerbated by zero-COVID regulations and stiff barriers for travel and exports, have caused consumer demand to hit a new low. The digital yuan, the first centrally backed crypto token, could be the solution Beijing needs to restore consumer trust in their economy.
Brian Wong, Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Fellow at Centre on Contemporary China and the World, HKU and Rhodes Scholar
Sep 19, 2022
The last two years of COVID-regulated trade with China have drastically changed China’s economic and social capital on the world stage. China must be proactive in inviting foreign business back in or risk their former partners losing interest.
Dan Steinbock, Founder, Difference Group
Aug 26, 2022
In its pursuit for unipolar primacy, the Biden administration is risking the economic stability of China, the West, emerging Asia, and the futures of the Global South.
Zhang Baijia, Former Deputy Director of the Party History Research Center, CPC Central Committee
Jul 27, 2022
As an emerging power, China must cultivate a healthy national psyche, seeing not only from its own perspective but also that of others. It should do its own things well, balancing reform, development and stability. And it should work to reestablish positive relations with the U.S..
Xu Hongcai, Deputy Director, Economic Policy Commission
Jul 27, 2022
China’s fundamentals are resilient and robust, and the trend points to normalcy and growth. Trade is up, inflation has been controlled, and while the U.S. Fed’s rate hike pushed many currencies down, the Chinese yuan has remained stable.
Lawrence Lau, Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics, CUHK
Jun 23, 2022
In the short run, all increases in government expenditures have the same macroeconomic effects on both GDP and employment. However, in the long run, increases in real fixed-assets investments augment the real capital stock and increase the real GDP, whereas increases in consumption due to increases in disposable income through, for example, tax cuts and transfer payments, generate no direct lasting benefits. Infrastructural investment, which is often needed for the provision of public goods, can generate benefits that can be widely shared in the economy even though they cannot be fully captured or internalised by the projects themselves.
Lawrence Lau, Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics, CUHK
Jun 23, 2022
In economics, a public good is usually defined as a product or service that is openly available to be enjoyed by all members of a society. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines a public good to be a product or service that is non-excludable and non-depletable (or “non-rivalrous”). Examples of such public goods include law enforcement, national defence, a stable local currency, and clean air and water. The elimination of a public bad, such as air pollution, is also a public good. The definition of a “public good” used in this article is slightly generalised to include potentially rivalrous goods, such as a seat on a train, so long as it is non-excludable ex ante. Basic education is a public good that is generally non-rivalrous; whereas mass transit is a public good that can at times be rivalrous.
Lawrence Lau, Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics, CUHK
Jun 23, 2022
On May 5, Professor Laurence J. Lau, Ralph and Claire Landau Professor of Economics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong delivered a lecture with the same title during an online session hosted by the China Center of the Jesus College of Cambridge University. Professor Lau has kindly provided China-US Focus with an edited text of the lecture in which he addresses the role of public goods - education, public health, elderly care, basic research, infrastructure, social safety net, and alleviation of poverty - in China’s social and economic development over the past seven decades. Professor Lau argues that increasing provision of public goods is consistent with China’s strategy of “dual circulation development as well as its “common prosperity” policy, and could be a significant source of growth in demand in both consumption and investment that is essential to China’s continued prosperity. The following is part one of the lecture.