Yukon Huang is a Senior Associate in the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Carnegie, he was the World Bank’s Country Director for China, based in Beijing, and earlier the World Bank’s Director for Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Huang’s research focuses on China’s economic and financial prospects and its global impact. He was the principal advisor for the joint Chinese Government-World Bank “China 2030” report. Huang has published widely on development issues affecting China and East Asia.

He is currently working on a book on why views differ so much on China’s economy. He is a featured commentator for the Financial Times on China and his articles are also seen frequently in other major media such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. He appears regularly on CCTV in China and other international outlets such as BBC, CNBC, and CNN.

Huang has a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a B.A. from Yale University.

Last Updated: June 30, 2015

10 Years of U.S.-China Trade Relations

Paul Haenle, Yukon Huang & more from Carnegie China
Trade ties between the U.S. and China have undergone significant changes since the launch of the China in the World podcast 10 years ago. This episode helps shed light on the evolution of U.S.-China trade relations over that time.

Conversation

06.26.18

Should the U.S. Start a Trade War with China over Tech?

Jack Zhang, Graham Webster & more
At an already volatile moment in the United States’ trade relationship with China, the Treasury Department appears to be planning new restrictions on Chinese investment into what the White House calls “industrially significant technology” in the U.S...

Books

09.27.17

Cracking the China Conundrum

Yukon Huang
China’s rise is altering global power relations, reshaping economic debates, and commanding tremendous public attention. Despite extensive media and academic scrutiny, the conventional wisdom about China’s economy is often wrong. Cracking the China Conundrum provides a holistic and contrarian view of China’s major economic, political, and foreign policy issues.Yukon Huang trenchantly addresses widely accepted yet misguided views in the analysis of China’s economy. He examines arguments about the causes and effects of China’s possible debt and property market bubbles, trade and investment relations with the West, the links between corruption and political liberalization in a growing economy, and Beijing’s more assertive foreign policies. Huang explains that such misconceptions arise in part because China’s economic system is unprecedented in many ways—namely because it’s driven by both the market and state—which complicates the task of designing accurate and adaptable analysis and research. Further, China’s size, regional diversity, and uniquely decentralized administrative system pose difficulties for making generalizations and comparisons from micro to macro levels when trying to interpret China’s economic state accurately.This book not only interprets the ideologies that experts continue building misguided theories upon, but also examines the contributing factors to this puzzle. Cracking the China Conundrum provides an enlightening and corrective viewpoint on several major economic and political foreign policy concerns currently shaping China’s economic environment. —Oxford University Press{chop}Related Reading:“What the West Gets Wrong About China’s Economy,” Yukon Huang, Foreign Affairs, September 14, 2017“Challenging Conventional Wisdom,” Chen Weihua, China Daily, April 28, 2017“Cracking China’s Debt Conundrum,” Yukon Huang, Financial Times, December 6, 2016“Despite Slower Growth, China’s Economy Is Undergoing Major Changes,” NPR Interview with Yukon Huang, January 19, 2016

Breaking Down the U.S. Trade Deficit with China

Paul Haenle & Yukon Huang from Carnegie China
A positive relationship between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, is crucial for promoting global growth and development. The bilateral relationship, however, has become increasingly fraught by disagreements over what a...

Conversation

05.24.16

How Much Debt Is Too Much in China?

Yukon Huang, Houze Song & more
In the first quarter of 2016, Chinese debt rose to 237 percent of GDP—a level comparable to that of the U.S. or the Eurozone and yet much larger than that of most developing economies, according to analysis by The Financial Times. Additionally,...

Conversation

07.29.15

Can Xi Jinping Turn China’s Economy Around?

Arthur R. Kroeber, George Chen & more
On Monday, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 8.5 percent, erasing all of the gains it had made in an extraordinary run-up this year. The drop was the second 8.5 percent drop in recent weeks. The first such drop (the occasion for the Conversation...

Conversation

07.02.15

How Much Does the Chinese Market Matter to the World?

Yukon Huang, Ira Kalish & more
China’s main market, reflected in the Shanghai Composite Index, has fallen 24 percent since June 12, losing $2.4 trillion in value. While many analysts are focused on the financial crisis in Greece, some are beginning to wonder if China's woes...