Decoding China: The Chinese Economic Miracle, Interrupted?

Decoding China is a PI/BFI-China joint initiative that aims to bring relevant and thought-provoking global affairs programming, live and in-person, to both the University of Chicago and the greater Chicago professional community.

Is the once high-flying Chinese economy losing steam? Will China innovate its way out of its economic quandary like in the past or stumble into stagnation like Japan did in the 1990s?

There’s no question more consequential than what’s happening to the world’s second-largest economy—its current and future prospects affect global capital, global companies, and global politics.

Yet it has become ever more challenging to get clear answers on these questions. Three years of the pandemic have dried up foreigners’ regular travel to China, limiting access to on-the-ground observations. The firehose of information on China, often contradictory, increasingly leaves investors and policymakers wondering how to separate the noise from the signal. Until now.

The Paulson Institute (PI) and the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute – China (BFI-China) co-hosted “The Chinese Economic Miracle, Interrupted?” to get insight on what’s really going on in the Chinese economy and the choices confronting the Chinese leadership. This live podcast recording featured a conversation amongst Chang-Tai Hsieh (University of Chicago), Kaiser Kuo (Sinica), Lizzi C. Lee (The Signal), and Damien Ma (The Paulson Institute).

For this inaugural event of the Decoding China series, PI and BFI-China were delighted to collaborate with The China Project on a live Sinica Podcast conversation. An additional portion of the event featured an interactive and fun competition involving the attendees. BFI-China acknowledges and appreciates support from the China-United States Exchange Foundation for this event series.