A Moment of Opportunity

China sage James Fallows has the cover story in this month’s Atlantic Monthly. In China’s Way Forward, Fallows address the slowdown in the Chinese economy and examines a standard premise that if China is unable to maintain a sustainable, manageable rate of growth it risks imploding.

Fallows believes, and illustrates with colorful examples, that the economic downturn can actually be a game changer. He submits that losses in the volume of low value added production of consumer goods is an important catalyst for the next phase of the Chinese economy, one focused on China.

A pursuit of design and technical innovation, along with a touch of consumerism, signals a China looking to move up the value chain and create and retain capabilities that have to date largely come from the outside world.

This is great reading. There is also a brief video associated with the article addressing the Currency Manipulator tag applied to China.