'The Rise and Fall of the EAST' chronicles China's economic history

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4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Yasheng Huang, a professor of global economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, names four major contributors to China's economy in his new book, The Rise and Fall of the EAST: exams, autocracy, stability and technology. Huang writes that those have been the driving factors of Chinese development dating back to the Sui dynasty, and particularly during the economic boom of the past half-century. But he tells Here & Now's Scott Tong that a declining property sector, a lack of investment in people and today's political leadership is ringing alarms for the country's future.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's MPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Listening to today's interview,
0:06.4	I kept going back and forth, thinking about how different people can be across the world, but also
0:11.8	how similar? The book is The Rise and Fall of the East by MIT Global Econ Professor
0:17.3	Yasheng Huang, and it's about the shaky status of China's economy right now
0:21.2	and how it got there. And yes, China's situation is radically different from that of the United
0:26.5	States. But in this conversation with here and now Scott Tong, they talked about not being
0:31.5	able to afford property, people unwilling to spend due to economic uncertainty, and a leadership
0:37.3	disconnected from its citizens,
0:39.4	which to me sounds pretty familiar.
0:41.9	That's after the break.
0:43.8	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:48.6	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:53.1	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:55.2	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand
0:59.7	why distant events matter here at home.
1:02.8	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:08.1	China has been showing signs of an economic slump.
1:12.4	The real estate market, long an important engine for the Chinese economy, has been sputtering.
1:17.4	Stock market has been sliding, and unemployment is reaching new heights.
1:21.8	For some perspective on what's happening now, in a longer view, we turn to Yasheng Huang.
1:27.2	He's professor of global
1:28.2	economics at MIT, a fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington. And his book is The Rise and Fall of
	...

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