China starves its economy of information at its own risk
Live MintFor decades, a global guessing game has focused on whether the people of China will tire of single-party rule. China’s property sector remains in a deep slump, with home values dropping and builders at risk of going bust before they can deliver flats. While the web being broadly under the state’s watch is taken as a given, what seems new is a vigil to identify folks faced with hardship who might be venting emotions that could fan dissent and endanger social stability, with the latter portrayed as a public good put at risk by the former. Internet censors are seen to be in overdrive mode, too, with viral views on China’s weak economy likely to get scrubbed off. Even in an economy that mixes the efficiency of market forces with the opacity of central command, an information choke could make matters worse.
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The real problem with China’s economy
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