In the old days, when communist central planning suffocated China’s economy, fixed-asset investment was the regime’s measure of economic progress. The more tons of steel produced, slabs of concrete poured, and gallons of crude oil pumped out of the ground the better. The consumption-based economy, to which the capitalist West had apparently succumbed, was written off as a paper tiger.
In the old days, when communist central planning suffocated China’s economy, fixed-asset investment was the regime’s measure of economic progress. The more tons of steel produced, slabs of concrete poured, and gallons of crude oil pumped out of the ground the better. The consumption-based economy, to which the capitalist West had apparently succumbed, was written off as a paper tiger.