Chinese Economy Embraces Supply-side Reform

Supply-side Reform

CYBER retailers geared up at midnight heralding the dawn of November 11, 2015 to collectively raise the curtain on the Double Eleven Festival – China’s most proactively participated- in shopping spree.

On this day the country’s turnover hit a historic global high of RMB 91.2 billion, and 68 percent of transactions, covering 232 countries and regions around the world, were made by cellphone.

During Spring Festival 2015, news reports of Chinese tourists in Japan snapping up ostensibly local-made toilet seats by the thousand triggered hot online comments. Certain models of these much- sought- after bathroom accessories, however, were eventually found to have been manufactured in the coastal province of Zhejiang in eastern China.

This begs the question, why should so many Chinese travelers in this neighboring country fall prey to a wave of panic purchasing of China-made merchandise? Chinese Premier Li Keqiang addressed this paradox during the NPC & CPPCC sessions last year.

Li’s sagacious answer was: first of all, we should be open-minded enough to oppose any trade barriers, because consumers have the right to make their own choices; second, Chinese enterprises should upgrade their technologies sufficiently to produce commodities that are equally competitive. “We should at least save our Chinese customers the expense of an air ticket,” was Li’s jocular conclusion.

It is clear that Chinese customers lack neither shopping zeal nor wherewithal. However, the sometimes unsat-