Is China about to collapse? That question has been front and center in the past weeks as the country completes its leadership transition and after the exposure of its various real estate bubbles during a widely-watched 60 Minutes exposé this past weekend.
Of the many reasons why Asia (outside of Japan) weathered the Great Recession more ably than other parts of the world, one of the most important was the fact that the region never experienced a financial crisis.
After instant and seemingly coordinated fanfare in Europe
and the United States, the proposal for a European Union-US free-trade area has
been generating little media attention. There are three reasons for this, and
all three highlight broader constraints on good national economic policymaking
and productive cross-border coordination.
Economic turmoil in the US and Europe is helping to
accelerate a deeper, long term development. After three centuries of economic
dominance, the west is about to be eclipsed by a rising Asian
power: China. Not only may the Chinese economy soon be larger than
America’s – if measured in purchasing power – but the renminbi could displace
the dollar as the premier, reserve currency within the next decade or soon
thereafter.
日本和中国或将展开新一轮地区影响力竞争,此次争夺的对象是日本把持近半个世纪的亚洲开发银行(Asian Development Bank)行长一职。日本为此正在加紧准备。之所以有这件事,是因为东京方面决定提名现任亚行行长黑田东彦(Haruhiko Kuroda)在3月份出任日本央行(Bank of Japan)行长一职,空出了亚行的第一把交椅。