The Price of Zero: China's Policy Missteps During and After the Pandemic

DETAILS

[Book Launch] The Price of Zero: China's Policy Missteps During and After the Pandemic

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: Professor Donald Low
𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: Yeong Pey Jung
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: Monday, 27 January 2025
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲: 3:00 – 4:30PM
𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲: Conference Hall, Penang Institute

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Join Professor Donald Low, Senior Lecturer at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), for a book launch exploring China’s post-COVID slowdown, its causes, impacts, and efforts to boost growth.

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Note: Entrance to this event is 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘. Join us in person or watch the live stream on Penang Institute's Facebook and YouTube channel.

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Abstract

The Chinese economy has not rebounded since pandemic restrictions were lifted at the end of 2022. High debt levels, falling property prices, excess capacity in many industries, falling foreign direct investment, and tepid consumption growth have all contributed to a weak recovery and persistent deflationary pressures. Commentators predict that the Chinese economy has peaked, and that it is now undergoing ‘Japanification’ – a reference to Japan’s lost decades marked by a prolonged period of sluggish growth and debt deflation. In response, the Chinese government has launched an ambitious plan – emphasising the technologies and industries of the future – to invest in ‘new quality productive forces’, increase productivity, and ensure technology self-sufficiency in the face of growing trade tensions. Amid the slowdown at home, Chinese firms are investing heavily in the rest of world, especially in developing countries. What are the causes of China’s post-Covid slowdown? Is the slowdown structural or cyclical? And what are its likely impacts on the rest of Asia and the world?

About the speaker

Donald Low is Senior Lecturer and Professor of Practice in public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He’s the editor of Behavioural Economics and Policy Design: Examples from Singapore (2011), the lead author of Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus (2015), and co-author of PAP v PAP: The Party’s Struggle to Adapt to a Changing Singapore (2020). His latest book is The Price of Zero: China’s Policy Missteps During and After Covid (2024), which examines the causes and economic consequences of the zero-Covid policy that the Chinese authorities pursued for much of the pandemic. He argues that initial success with Covid suppression bred hubris, utopian thinking, and overconfidence, leading to a series of crackdowns on industries that, until recently, were key sources of China’s growth. The Price of Zero will be available for sale at this talk at MYR 50.

Moderator

Yeong Pey Jung (杨佩蓉) ,
Senior Analyst of Socioeconomics & Statistics Programme, Penang Institute

She holds a Masters in Business from Swinburne University of Technology and a double degree in Arts (Psychology & Political Science) and Commerce (Economics) from University of Melbourne. Her main research work includes gender equality, minority marginalization and socio-economic issues in youth development. Other research interests include the Malaysia NEP, affirmative action in a welfare state, and the politics of international trade.

Host or Publisher Penang Institute