COLUMNISTS
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By David Pilling
Published: January 20 2010 22:23 | Last updated: January 20 2010 22:23
In the far north of China last weekend, thousands of Chinese tourists streamed to Harbin's famous ice festival where they forked out $25 a head to view replicas of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City carved out of gigantic blocks of ice. The spectacle of China's new middle class on holiday was impressive, if hardly scientific, evidence of the vigour of an economy that last year grew by 8.5 per cent as much of the rest of the world crumbled.
This year, the consensus is for China to grow even faster, by at least 9.5 per cent, as exports pick up and record investment continues. Yet there are more than a few dissenters who warn that, like the ice palaces of Harbin, the seemingly solid Chinese economy is sooner or later bound to melt. Are they right?
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