China’s economy is not doing as well as it used to do, but hiding the financial data during the recent Party Congress was a bad move, says financial analyst Victor Shih, author of Coalitions of the Weak, at ANI. “The very likely reason the numbers were delayed was the State Council leaders were afraid the numbers would detract from the triumphant tone of the party congress,” he added.
ANI:
The transparency in economic figures of the country and their revelation in the form of the release of data on how the economy fared in the past three months seems to lack under the regime of Xi Jinping.
Highlighting the situation of China’s economy, a specialist in Chinese elite politics and finance at the University of California at San Diego, Victor Shih said, “It does show the primacy of politics in influencing the very competent, institutional technocracy that China has.”
“The very likely reason the numbers were delayed was the State Council leaders were afraid the numbers would detract from the triumphant tone of the party congress,” he added.
“It’s a horrible blunder. I don’t know if they are massaging the numbers. Even if they need to massage the figures, the better thing to do would be to massage them within the usual time frame,” stated Yale University law professor specialising in comparative legal and economic history, Taisu Yang in a separate statement, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Moreover, Beijing set a target in March that growth would be “about 5.5 per cent” this year, however, the country’s economy grew only a little more than 3 per cent in the third quarter.
Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
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