China looks like a giant these days — and in many, many ways it is. The Chinese boom has flooded the world with mountains of Chinese products. It has flooded China’s treasury with cash and built a red-hot economy on China’s booming coast.
But as the 17th Communist Party Congress sat down in Beijing this week — and yes, the Communist Party still runs this supernova — it is China’s weaknesses that are getting a lot of attention: Corruption. Pollution. Vast inequalities. And big political questions. So, is this the Chinese century?
Up next, On Point: superpower or fragile giant? We look at China.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Susan Shirk, UC San Diego political science professor, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State responsible for U.S. relations with China from 1997 to 2000, and author of the new book “China: Fragile Superpower.”
Zhiwu Chen, expert on China and professor of finance at Yale’s School of Management.
Joseph Kahn, Bejing-based New York Times correspondent. He has been working on the Times’ series “Choking on Growth.”
