China's 'dying' companies

Zern Hee Chua is a research intern at the Global TechnoPolitics Forum and an editor at the Brown Political Review. His research focuses on Chinese economic growth.

For all its technological feats, China’s push for high-quality innovation has not made the economy that much more productive. This lends greater urgency to other productivity drivers such as firm efficiency — an exigency that Beijing is hardly unaware of. In recent months, the central government has outlined a series of regulatory measures to discourage local officials from propping up inefficient firms. But nothing stops local leaders from circumventing those regulations. The Chinese bureaucracy continues to reward officials who hit GDP growth targets, minimize unemployment and social unrest, and defer to the dynastic mandates…