While shadow banking remains too risky to fully legitimize as a reliable form of finance for China’s economy, there is one aspect that, under strong supervision, may provide relief for financing needs that banks cannot fully satisfy.

China’s challenges – pollution, corruption, and the economy – have imbued the reform efforts necessary to lead to unpredicted innovation, both by Internet companies and a vast provision of international infrastructure projects.

Following concerns voiced at the World Economic Forum in Davos about China’s burgeoning shadow banking system, Michael Justin Lee examines the role of financial entities that don’t fall under direct bank regulation within market economies and argues that fears of China’s economic downfall are overblown.

The turmoil surrounding China’s shadow banking system is easily understood as more than $1 trillion worth of debt is set to mature in the system before May. However, as Minxin Pei points out, China’s new leadership must turn shadow banking’s impending crisis into a strategic opportunity and face short-term pain to prevent the triggering of a domino-style collapse.

Laying out the argument for economic reforms, Zhang Monan explains how debt accumulation is on the rise in China. While the real economy tumbles, shadow banking and off-balance-sheet financing is on the rise, making it vital that Chinese leadership lessen the burden on the real economy.

Loan growth in China’s shadow-banking system has surged in recent months, but Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng warn that without proper financial reforms this unregulated system could put the nation’s sustained growth at risk, threatening economic stability.