Reports

01.13.07

Is China a Threat to the U.S. Economy?

Craig K. Elwell, Marc Labonte
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
The rise of China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of only twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest economic success stories in modern times. From 1979 (when economic reforms...

Reports

01.12.07

The State of Wildlife Trade in China

Xu Ling, Liu Xueyan, Meng Meng, Yin Feng, Dick Tong, Timothy Lam, Xu Hongfa, Joyce Wu
World Wildlife
This edition aims to highlight wildlife trade trends in threatened and at-risk wildlife from the past year, with an emphasis on the impact of China’s consumption on globally important biodiversity ‘hotspots.’ Surveys in 2007 found that while illegal...

Reports

01.04.07

China’s Trade with the United States and the World

Thomas Lum, Dick K. Nanto
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
As imports from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have surged in recent years, posing a threat to some U.S. industries and manufacturing employment, Congress has begun to focus on not only access to the Chinese market and intellectual property...

Reports

01.01.07

Das (Wasted) Kapital: Firm Ownership and Investment Efficiency in China

David Dollar and Shang-Jin Wei
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Based on a survey that covers a stratified random sample of 12,400 firms in 120 cities in China with firm-level accounting information for 2002-2004, the authors examine the presence of systematic distortions in capital allocation that result in...

Reports

01.01.07

China: Strengthening Monetary Policy Implementation

Bernard J. Laurens and Rodolfo Maino
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The People's Bank of China (PBC) has made great strides in modernizing its monetary policy frameworks, but their effectiveness will diminish as the sophistication of the economy increases. Empirical evidence supports maintaining a reference to...

Reports

12.01.06

Rebalancing China's Economy: What Does Growth Theory Tell Us?

Jahangir Aziz
Sara Segal-Williams
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
This paper uses the standard one-sector neoclassical growth model to investigate why China's consumption has been low and investment high. It finds that the low cost of capital has been quantitatively an important factor. Theory predicts that...

Reports

12.01.06

The Rise of Foreign Investments in Chinese Banks—Taking Stock

Lamin Leigh and Richard Podpiera
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
The recent wave of foreign investment in China's banks and the prospects of further opening of the banking sector under the WTO agreement suggest that foreign banks are likely to play an increasingly important role in China. This paper takes...

Reports

11.30.06

America and Japan Approach a Rising China

Dan Blumenthal
Sara Segal-Williams
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
America’s post-Cold War China policy was premised on the hope that multidimensional engagement with Beijing would result in a strong, rich, peaceful, and democratic China. Almost two decades later, America’s attitude toward China reflects the fear...

Reports

11.01.06

Can Good Events Lead to Bad Outcomes? Endogenous Banking Crises and Fiscal Policy Responses

Andrew Feltenstein and Céline Rochon
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
A study of the impact of labor market restructuring and foreign direct investment on the banking sector, using a dynamic general equilibrium model with a financial sector. Numerical simulations are performed using stylized Chinese data, and bank...

Reports

11.01.06

What’s Driving Investment in China?

Steven Barnett and Ray Brooks
Sara Segal-Williams
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Investment has grown rapidly in China in recent years, reaching more than 40 percent of GDP. Despite good progress on bank and enterprise reforms, weaknesses remain that could contribute to inefficient investment decisions. Manufacturing,...

Reports

11.01.06

Chinese Nuclear Forces and U.S. Nuclear War Planning

Hans M. Kristensen, Robert S. Norris, Matthew G. McKinzie
Natural Resources Defense Council
China and the United States have been aiming their nuclear weapons at each other for decades, but now—with the absence of a definitive enemy such as the Soviet Union—the United States has elevated China to fill the void to help justify modernizing...

Reports

10.10.06

Taiwan-U.S. Political Relations: New Strains and Changes

Kerry Dumbaugh
Peony Lui
Congressional Research Service
The U.S. policy framework for Taiwan was laid down in 1979 when Washington severed official relations with the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan and instead recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the legitimate Chinese government. The...

Reports

10.01.06

How Robust Are Estimates of Equilibrium Real Exchange Rates: The Case of China

Steven Dunaway, Lamin Leigh, and Xiangming Li
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Increased attention is being paid to assessments of the actual values of countries' real exchange rates relative to their "equilibrium" values as suggested by "fundamental" determining factors. This paper assesses the...

Reports

10.01.06

Amnesty International Calls on China to Start the Process to Sign Up to the New International Criminal Court

Amnesty International
As of 1 October 2006, 102 states had ratified the Rome Statute, establishing the International Criminal Court to prosecute genocide. China is one of only seven nations to vote against. Based on the strong political support expressed for the Court...

Reports

09.20.06

People’s Republic of China: The Olympics Countdown—Failing to Keep Human Rights Promises

Amnesty International
This report summarizes a number of Amnesty International's human rights concerns in China—concerns which the organization is continuing to highlight as key areas for reform in the run-up to the Olympics. They are: the continuing use of the...

Reports

08.01.06

Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship

Rebecca MacKinnon
Human Rights Watch
China’s system of Internet censorship and surveillance, popularly known as the “Great Firewall,” is the most advanced in the world. In this report, Human Rights Watch documents how extensive corporate and private sector cooperation—including by some...

Reports

07.11.06

Who’s Manipulating Whom? China’s Currency and the U.S. Economy

Daniel Griswold
Cato Institute
Congress and the Bush administration continue to pressure China to allow its currency to appreciate against the U.S. dollar under threat of trade sanctions. Critics contend “currency manipulation” gives Chinese producers an unfair advantage against...

Reports

05.01.06

Do Financing Biases Matter for the Chinese Economy?

Yasheng Huang
Cato Institute
It is widely acknowledged that China’s financial system is deeply troubled. Its banks have very high nonperforming loan ratios and its stock market has lost 50 percent of its value since 2001 amidst a GDP growth rate averaging some 9 percent a year...

Reports

05.01.06

Does China Save and Invest too Much?

John H. Makin
Cato Institute
China’s much-praised tendency to save and invest over 40 percent of its GDP has become dangerous and destabilizing, both for China and the global economy. China’s avid savers expect to increase their wealth by forgoing current consumption. There are...

Reports

05.01.06

A Framework for Independent Monetary Policy in China

Marvin Goodfriend and Eswar Prasad
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
As China's economy becomes more market-based and continues its rapid integration into the global economy, having an independent and effective monetary policy regime oriented to domestic objectives will become increasingly important...