Why China Won’t Give Up on a Failing Economic Model

Visits to Buddhist temples surged by over 300 percent last year, suggesting that more people are turning to superstitions for good luck to secure their futures. Increasingly, many Chinese seem to place more faith in temple offerings or amulets than in the party’s assurances of common prosperity.

local authorities have reduced the down payment required for purchasing a second home as part of efforts to eliminate excess inventory from the market and provide some support for housing prices. Given that housing accounts for about 70 percent of the assets of Chinese families and mortgages represent approximately 75 percent of household debt, any

Xi has made it clear that his top priority is to transform China into a self-reliant global superpower. He aims to be the leader who definitively leaves China’s “century of humiliation”—a reference to the long era of China’s perceived subservience to Western powers—behind. In this context, the government’s current GDP growth target of around five p

At the heart of China’s demand problem is a crisis of confidence stemming from the anxieties of ordinary Chinese about their economic circumstances and future. In 2017, the year Xi began his second term and tightened his grip on the economy, urban households were enjoying the fruits of decades of strong growth, with disposable income doubling appro