Lan Xiaohuan is a professor of economics at China Europe International Business School. His book, How China Works: An Introduction to China\u2019s State-led Economic Development, has sold millions of copies in China and has been translated into multiple languages.<\/p>\n
Here, he discusses the economic realities behind China\u2019s record trade surplus, the case for a stronger social safety net, and how public data infrastructure shapes the artificial intelligence race with the United States.<\/p>\n
This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus<\/a>. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since you wrote<\/strong> How China Works<\/strong>, the global and domestic environments have both evolved. What are the most critical shifts and developments for China? If you were to add a new chapter to the book to reflect these changes, what would be its central theme?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would not add a new chapter; I would write an entirely new book. It\u2019s not that there aren\u2019t new issues, but rather addressing them requires a new framework.<\/p>\n Domestically, the decline of the real estate market and the rapid rise of manufacturing and technology are significant shifts. My new book would likely focus on China\u2019s industry and technology.<\/p>\n But actually, I think the most consequential changes are external: the impact of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, the energy shocks regarding Iran, and shifting political dynamics in the United States. In comparison, China\u2019s domestic baseline has remained relatively stable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lan Xiaohuan is a professor of economics at China Europe International Business School. His book, How China Works:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1190879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3090],"tags":[323,1942,3801,51,6725,1395,15398,18739,73855,1700,299,322841,6084,774,322844,3694,332,322843,2580,322840,322842,1201,16,753,15,49],"class_list":["post-1190878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-beijing","tag-business","tag-central-banks","tag-china","tag-consumption","tag-economic-recovery","tag-economic-stimulus","tag-economy","tag-europe","tag-humanoid-robotics","tag-infrastructure","tag-iran","tag-lan-xiaohuan","tag-robotics","tag-russia","tag-scmp-plus","tag-social-security","tag-social-security-net","tag-supreme-peoples-court","tag-trade","tag-uk","tag-ukraine-war","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117228184881507224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1190879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}