Government Incompetence Is the Real Threat to China

Jeremy Wallace, associate professor of government and faculty member of Cornell’s China and Asia Pacific Studies Program, comments on the market volatility in China and the Chinese government’s response. Wallace is the author of Cities and Stability: Urbanization, Redistribution, and Regime Survival in China.

Wallace says:

“Don’t worry about the Chinese stock market collapse, worry about government incompetence. “The failure of the Chinese government’s stock market intervention strongly undermines the regime’s rhetoric of legitimacy via competence. The government’s current efforts to centralize authority to reduce corruption can create the opportunity for new kinds of problems, as decisions made on a whim are implemented immediately.”