China Crisis?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For years China has been perhaps the most important economic engine driving growth around the world. Earlier this year it bounced back from the Covid shutdowns with double-digit growth. Global demand for Chinese-made products has been booming. But this week growth figures have dropped dramatically. The country has been experiencing an energy and property crisis. So, is the bubble bursting? And should we be worried?
Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are:
Celia Hatton, the BBC's Asia Pacific Editor Dr. Philip Andrews-Speed, Senior Principal Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute of the National University of Singapore George Magnus, Research Associate at the China Centre, Oxford University Tom Orlik, Chief Economist at Bloomberg Economics Dr. Keyu Jin, Associate Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics
Producers: John Murphy, Soila Apparicio, Kirsteen Knight Sound Engineer: Graham Puddifoot Editor: Jasper Corbett
Image: Chenzhou in China during a blackout Credit: Alamy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.1 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David O'Ronovich. |
| 0:07.8 | The briefing room. |
| 0:08.9 | It's you, it's me, it's a big issue, top experts, and 28 minutes to get informed. |
| 0:15.4 | And this week, China, where there's an energy and property crisis. |
| 0:20.0 | What's going on? |
| 0:21.6 | Music where there's an energy and property crisis. What's going on? |
| 0:28.6 | China seems to be in a spot of economic bother. GDP figures have dropped significantly, |
| 0:31.6 | and the country has also been experiencing an energy shortage, |
| 0:34.6 | with factories having to stop production and homes being plunged into the dark. |
| 0:40.5 | And as the saying almost goes, when China catches a cold, the rest of us will all need a hanky. |
| 0:47.8 | So what's going on and how worried should we be? |
| 0:51.5 | Step into the briefing room, and together we'll find out. |
| 0:58.6 | Let's start with an overview. |
| 1:05.0 | Joining me in the briefing room is the BBC's Asia-Pacific editor, Celia Hatton. Celia Hatton, |
| 1:12.6 | how significant is the Chinese economic slowdown, especially if we compare it with what's gone before? |
| 1:21.4 | Well, I think, yeah, we have to put this into context to look at the big numbers that we're used to seeing coming out of China. I mean, but since China began opening up in 1978, we're used to double digit increases in expansion of its economy every year. |
| 1:32.3 | And so now we're seeing those big numbers. |
| 1:35.4 | They have been slowing down for quite some time. |
| 1:38.5 | There's less productivity. |
| 1:40.0 | We have an aging workforce. |
| 1:42.1 | We've got, of course, the ongoing trade disputes with the United States. |
... |
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