Why are people pessimistic about the Chinese economy?
The "China collapse" theory has persisted for over 40 years, because its supporters have failed to recognize the opportunities in China.
On January 17th, the National Bureau of Statistics released data stating that China's GDP grew by 5.2% in 2023. In response, Bloomberg commented, "This data is impressive." For foreign media outlets promoting the notion of "China's rise is about to peak" recently, the 5.2% growth rate truly leaves them with mixed feelings.
In this article, Justin Yifu Lin, one of China's most renowned contemporary economists, challenged the pessimism towards China from the perspectives of the country's advancement, demographic dividend, and balance sheet recession.
By Justin Yifu Lin, 18 Jan 2024
The course Special Topics in the Chinese Economy takes a broad historical perspective to review China's development. In history, China was once a prosperous civilization but missed the wave of the 18th-century Industrial Revolution, rapidly falling behind as a backward nation subjected to others' whims.
After the Opium War, generations of intellectuals, who took it upon themselves to rejuvenate t…
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