https://www.scmp.com/rss/321728/feed Yasheng Huang is international programme professor in Chinese economy and business, and professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Critics often claim China is using its massive Belt and Road Initiative as a form of coercive debt-trap diplomacy to exert control over the countries that join its transnational infrastructure investment scheme. This risk, as Deborah Brautigam of Johns Hopkins University recently noted, is often exaggerated by the media. In fact, the initiative may hold a different kind of risk — for China itself. At the recent belt and road summit in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping seemed to acknowledge... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011546/its-belt-and-road-projects-china-risks-falling-biggest-debt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3011546/its-belt-and-road-projects-china-risks-falling-biggest-debt?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 May 2019 07:00:10 +0000 It is widely understood that China needs to move from an investment-intensive growth model to one based on science, technology and innovation. But before I take up this subject, let me take a detour to tell a tale of two countries. READ MORE: For China’s struggling economy, 2016 may be worse than 2015 Both countries are small. One has a population of 5.5 million people; the other has a population of 8 million. In both countries, the dominant ethnic group is about 75 per cent of the population... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1919673/israeli-model-holds-answers-chinas-quest-technology-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1919673/israeli-model-holds-answers-chinas-quest-technology-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Mar 2016 03:53:13 +0000 The ability of the Chinese government to control is undisputed and unparalleled compared with governments in other countries and, indeed, compared with the Chinese state during imperial times. If the stock market does not go up, then prevent it from going down by shutting it down. If too many investors want to cash out their positions at the same time, just charge them with “malicious intent to sell” and arrest them as proverbial chickens to scare off the monkeys. The problem is that a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1903379/chinas-economic-policymakers-have-learn-let-go-if-they-want?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1903379/chinas-economic-policymakers-have-learn-let-go-if-they-want?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Jan 2016 09:39:49 +0000 In 1983, the UN gave China and India awards for their efforts to control the population. The recipient for India was its then prime minister, Indira Gandhi. She famously pushed for a compulsory sterilisation campaign and even suspended elections in order to enforce it. Her programme failed miserably, and one of its enduring effects is a pervasive distrust of India’s health care system, which still plagues public health efforts today. By contrast, China’s one-child policy was in place for 35... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1883602/china-must-draw-right-lessons-failures-its-one-child-policy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1883602/china-must-draw-right-lessons-failures-its-one-child-policy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Nov 2015 10:47:36 +0000 The visible effect of pollution in China is undeniable. I recently spent two weeks in Beijing, where I grew up, with my family. For the first seven days, the sun did not shine. A hazy layer of greyish-white smog hung over us. Every morning, I checked the air quality index, which uses guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), on my smartphone app and the results were alarming. Air quality came in at around 300. According to the EPA, levels between 301 and 500 are considered... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1322172/breathable-air-china-must-reduce-costs-its-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1322172/breathable-air-china-must-reduce-costs-its-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000