What Is Beijing Going to do About Slowing Growth?

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In The Media

What Is Beijing Going to do About Slowing Growth?

Even though Beijing’s leaders realize the need for reform, resistance from state-owned enterprises presents a political barrier to implementing changes.

By Evan A. Feigenbaum

Published on Oct 20, 2014

Source: CNBC

Speaking on CNBC, Carnegie’s Evan Feigenbaum discussed the economic options available to China. He said that if the government continues to stimulate the economy, it could lead to further economic distortions. Instead, he said, real potential lies in looking to other sources of growth that could lead to long-term reform. Such sources include a “greater role for the private sector in the economy; demonopolization and opening of more sectors to competition; and greater innovation.” Feigenbaum added that, while the Chinese government realizes this, there has been greater resistance from the state-owned enterprises to these reforms than anticipated, so the lag in implementing these policies has been “political” and not “intellectual.” He concluded that Beijing was ultimately more concerned with the depth and quality of reform rather than the speed of reform, and so Beijing is working on changing the environment in which such state-owned enterprises operate rather than assaulting them directly.

This interview was originally broadcast by CNBC.

About the Author

Evan A. Feigenbaum

Vice President for Studies

Evan A. Feigenbaum is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he oversees work at its offices in Washington, New Delhi, and Singapore on a dynamic region encompassing both East Asia and South Asia. He served twice as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and advised two Secretaries of State and a former Treasury Secretary on Asia.

Recent Work

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Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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