'Beijing Consensus' May Have Big Downside

I was in China recently after two years and found that hubris had set in about the country’s rise. At the Shanghai Forum I attended, it was argued that not only was China set to become the world’s dominant economy within a decade, but a national assertiveness to challenge the US super-power was evident, so was a marked reversal in the gradual increase (since 1989) in personal liberty. The source of this hubris was China’s successful navigation of the global financial crisis, which had undermined US hegemony, justifying China’s distinctive economic policies of state capitalism, termed the “Beijing Consensus”.