Reform or no reform? Authors clash over China’s way to a healthy economic future

Beijing’s heavy-handed approach to leading China could be a drag on future growth, the author of a new book on the country’s economy said at a hotly contested New York forum.

“Many [people in China] are worried about the hubris of the current regime,” said panellist Paul Clifford, who wrote The China Paradox – At the Front Line of Economic Transformation.

Clifford, who spent two decades in China working closely with state-owned enterprises, said that China’s firm leadership style has raised a feeling of “real danger that if it succeeds, it will mean a rollback of the reforms”.

“Some of the companies are feeling a great deal of pressure that [a lack of reform] hampers their ability to be nimble in the market,” Clifford said. “The political overhang is an anxiety that a lot of people have.”

Clifford was one of two authors of books on China who clashed at an event presented by the China Institute over whether the country’s current political systems could impede its economic growth in the years to come.