BONUS EPISODE

Bad news about China's economy keeps lingering about, with huge debt, rising youth unemployment, the lowest growth in four decades, and a quivering real estate sector that can no longer serve as the steroid China depended on for growth for so long. Despite all that, China is still the world's growth engine – there simply is no second China to fill the gap.

Keyu Jin and Jörg Wuttke explore the foundations of China's economic troubles, and also look at the big potential for innovation and increased productivity still left untapped. What reforms are needed to kickstart the economy, and: are China's leaders inclined to follow through on them? Keyu and Jörg discussed this live, on stage, at our STATE OF ASIA conference, held on November 23, 2023, in Zurich, Switzerland.

This bonus episode is a recording of that conversation, which was moderated by Martina Fuchs. A full video is available here.

SPEAKERS

Keyu Jin is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), where she researches and teaches international macroeconomics, technology competition, and Chinese economy. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism. She is also a board member of Richemont and AInnovation, as well as a member of China Finance 40. She has contributed op-eds published in The New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Time magazine and many others. She has taught at Yale and Berkeley in the past, and holds a B.A., M.A. and PhD from Harvard University. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014 and has also served on the board of Credit Suisse.

Jörg Wuttke was President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China from 2007 to 2010, 2014 to 2017 and again from 2019 to 2023. From 2001 to 2004, he was the Chairman of the German Chamber of Commerce in China. Since its establishment in 2013, Wuttke is member of the Advisory Board of Germany’s foremost think tank on China, Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), in Berlin. He lived in China for more than 30 years.

Martina Fuchs is a Europe Business Correspondent for China’s state news agency Xinhua, International Consultant for the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, International Advisor for the St. Gallen Symposium, and China Communications Consultant for the IMD business school.

STATE OF ASIA podcast

Season 5, bonus episode 3 – published January 4, 2024.

Host/Producer: Remko Tanis, Programs and Editorial Manager, Asia Society Switzerland

Episode cover photo: André Hengst

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