Can China successfully take the steam out of its overheating economy without causing a collapse, or more appropriately, given the steam metaphor, a meltdown? The question is not an academic one, but very real — and not just for the 1.3 billion people in China.
Other economies, from neighbors Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea to Europe and the United States, which would also be hit by any exploding lava, are vitally interested in how China manages its economy.
The transformation of China's economy even within the last five years has been little short of remarkable. The rest of the world has reason to watch and worry, especially given the Chinese appetite for key global commodities starting with oil. Not everyone is sanguine about the notion that the special Chinese mixture of the invisible hand of market forces and the iron fist of direct intervention will produce the right result.