International Analysis

How China May Be Running Out of Ways To Become World's No. 1 Economy

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The outcome of China’s twice-a-decade economic policymaking conclave known as the Third Plenum was so disappointing that it sent the Chinese yuan tumbling and stocks diving. Some past iterations of the Third Plenum delivered major economic overhauls, such as the 1978 Deng Xiaoping program of “reform and opening-up,” which paved the way for decades of economic growth. So far this year, Beijing has not revealed detailed plans to arrest the decline of its property industry, boost consumption or rewire a failing economy. And while as late as five years ago economists were predicting China's continued rise and its surpassing of the U.S., Robert Suettinger tells Taiwan Talks this is no longer inevitable. Suettinger says China's outlook is getting worse and questions whether any policy changes from the Third Plenum could resolve Beijing's "massive" economic problems. Our guests: Robert Suettinger - Author of "The Conscience of the Party; Hu Yaobang, China's Communist Reformer" - Former non-resident senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and affiliated fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies Dennis Wen - Associate professor in political science, Sam Houston State University (Texas)