‘Chinese Hawaii’ Shows Xi’s Graft Fight Hasn’t Hurt Economy
- Bloomberg analysis suggests China’s corruption was growth drag
- State-sector dominance, high debt seen as corruption drivers
SANYA, CHINA - August 15: A hammock awaits guests in the Mandarin Oriental hotel resort on the on the Dadonghai bay, coast of Sanya on August 15, 2010 in Hainan province, China. Sanya is the southernmost city of Hainan island, located in the Southern Chinese Sea. Sometimes referred to as the Hawaii of China because of its tropical climate, palm trees and white-sand beaches, Sanya is a booming tourism destination.
Photographer: Lucas Schifres/Getty ImagesBeing hard hit by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown hasn’t hurt Hainan’s economy. The tropical island province sometimes called China’s Hawaii lagged its peers before the anti-graft efforts started. Now, it’s beating them.
Hainan weathered significant scrutiny over the first three years of Xi’s campaign given its tiny output of $56 billion, with three dozen Communist Party officials probed, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis. Its growth slowed 1.3 percentage points amid the shake-up, less than half the average decrease nationwide of 3 percent, the research by Bloomberg Intelligence economists Tom Orlik and Fielding Chen found.