What are the Major Challenges to High Growth in China?

Wing Thye Woo will speak on challenges to China's growing economy at UC Irvine.

About the speaker:
Wing Thye Woo received his bachelor's degree in engineering and economics from Swarthmore College; his master's in economics from Yale; and his master's and doctorate in economics from Harvard. Currently, he serves as a professor of economics at UC Davis; Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) Scholar at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing; and director of the East Asia Program within The Earth Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Woo has published more than 130 articles in professional economic journals and books. In 2000, the Journal of International Economics identified his article, "The Monetary Approach to Exchange Rate Determination under Rational Expectations: The Dollar-Deutschemark Case," as one of the 25 most cited articles in its 30-year history. Dr. Woo has been an advisor to a number of governments on macroeconomic and exchange rate management, state enterprise restructuring, trade issues, and financial sector development. In 2004, UC Davis recognized him with the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award, and in 2009, the Governor of Penang, Malaysia, conferred on him the chivalry order of Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN) which bestows the title of Dato.

About the lecture:
Woo's lecture will draw from his paper, "The Challenges of Governance Structure, Trade Disputes and Natural Environment to China's Growth," in which he compares the Chinese economy to a speeding car, e.g. China's GDP has just overtaken Japan's in 2010. A car crash could occur from any one of the following three types of failures: hardware (the breakdown of an economic mechanism, e.g. a banking crisis); software (a flaw in governance that creates social disorders, e.g. a legitimacy crisis); and/or power supply (a shock that is mostly beyond the control of China, e.g. an environmental catastrophe and/or international sanctions). He finds that as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has identified its primary task as building a "Harmonious Society," software failure is likely the biggest challenge to its continued rule. Woo agrees only partly with the diagnosis of the CCP. In his view, enlightened self-interest would require that China develop a global view of its responsibilities, and help more actively in building a harmonious world.

About the Center for Asian Studies
The Center for Asian Studies is comprised of more than 40 interdisciplinary UCI faculty members who study China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and Southeast Asia and enhance the study of the many countries and cultures of Asia. The center provides a forum for discussions across geographic and disciplinary boundaries both on campus and within the community.  The center is sponsored by both the School of Humanities and School of Social Sciences.