4 February 2021

In November 2008 a panicked Chinese government launched a stimulus package equivalent to 12% of then GDP. The package propelled China out of the GFC, but it created more problems than it solved, e.g.:

  • A tenfold increase in corruption
  • Useless or non-economic projects: “bridges to nowhere”
  • A surge in banks’ bad loans
  • A sharp increase in the ratio of debt to GDP
  • Unsafe buildings, and highways that collapsed