Is China Reaching Its Glasnost/Perestroika Moment?

Structural decline in economic growth accelerates as tighter controls, one-man rule continue

A migrant worker erects scaffoldings at a construction site in Chongqing Municipality, China, on Jan. 13, 2007. China Photos/Getty Images

Commentary

After decades of double-digit growth, China may be edging closer to an extended structural economic decline. In broad terms, the factors that could lead up to this period of decline are already in place. In most cases, they stem from the excesses of China’s policies over the past several years of placing political primacy over economic growth.

Looking Like the Old USSR?

Even though China is technologically more advanced than the former Soviet Union, its growing state control and economic stagnancy are reminiscent of the old USSR in the late 1980s.