Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

46 страница из 137

China's rapid growth over the past four decades, and the consequent improvement in living standards, has insulated it from this second battlefront so far. In unleashing this growth, a number of highly talented statesmen have had to balance a great many conflicting interests. However, as it has pursued market-oriented reforms, growing wealth inequality in China is also generating greater social tensions. As economic growth slows from the heady rates of earlier years and demographic pressures from the country's aging population continue to rise, these tensions will only grow more acute. China's governance structure and economic model, credited with fostering the country's development during the early years of its economic transformation, may now be holding it back from adapting to new realities.

At its most fundamental level, therefore, the Financial Cold War is the invisible conflict, embedded in national financial policies and the structure of international financial markets, over the distribution of wealth. Worryingly, however, this has been spilling over into wider conflicts.