This is a series,

This is CBS, I on the World.

I'm John Bachelor with Corden Chang at Gordon G Chang.

And we're very lucky to have Ann Stevenson-Yang join us because she can help me interpret the ways of

debt in the People's Republic of China.

Anne is the author of the upcoming Wild Ride, China's short-lived experiment in capitalism.

And a very good day to you, I need help with a headline from Reuters.

China orders...

I doubt that, John. Go ahead. China orders local governments to cut exposure to public-private projects as debt risks

rise. What does that mean, Anne?

What's happening?

Good evening to.

Good evening.

It just means that they're desperate.

I don't know what they're going to do, but you know, the central

governments, what they should do is take a lot of this debt onto their own

balance sheet and pay some for the local governments, but instead they're like,

you know, waving their hands and saying,

local governments you owe too much, stop it.

The local governments, my memory,

when the boom started in the late 90s,

realize that they have land that they could

...