, Columnist
More Infrastructure Stimulus Is the Last Thing China Needs
Spending more on the likes of cement and high-speed rail lines won’t get capital to where it’s needed to sustain real growth.
A slab of precast bridge surface for the Fuzhou-Xiamen high-speed railway project.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Every year or so, China promises that its decade-long binge of infrastructure-led growth is coming to an end. Within a few months, those promises are torn up in the face of the economic slowdown such a policy will portend.
It’s happening again. President Xi Jinping told a high level meeting this week that all-out efforts must be made to spur infrastructure spending, with officials agreeing that the country’s communications, power and water networks were still insufficient for its development path and national security.