If Hu Jintao was a growth junkie, Xi Jinping wants to put China’s economy on a methadone programme. Under Mr Hu, the former president, Beijing was addicted to economic expansion. China defied the collapse in external demand that followed the 2008 Lehman Brothers crisis by ramping up spending on roads, ports and smelters through a huge expansion of credit funnelled into the economy via compliant banks and local governments desperate to meet centralised growth targets. The economy grew at near double digits even as exports slowed dramatically and the current account surplus shrank from 10 per cent of output to just 2-3 per cent.
如果說胡錦濤執政期間的中國經濟就好像是一個嗜成長成癮的人，那麼習近平現在希望用美沙酮來爲之戒癮。在中國前任國家主席胡錦濤的任期內，中國政府癡迷於追求經濟擴張。面對2008年雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)倒閉以後出現的海外需求大幅萎縮，中國通過聽話的銀行以及急於滿足中央經濟成長目標的地方政府，向經濟注入鉅額信貸資金，擴大開支修建公路、港口、熔爐。雖然出口成長顯著放緩，經常項目順差與國內生產毛額(GDP)之比從10%下降爲僅2%至3%，但中國經濟仍以接近兩位數的速度成長。