Parsing China’s Stimulus Plan

The big news during the first few days of China’s National People’s Congress has been the revelations, or lack thereof, about how Beijing plans to spend its way out of the current slump. The Chinese business magazine Caijing has a useful chart comparing the plan outlined Friday with the original stimulus package announced last year. While the price tag remains the same at $586 billion, Caijing points out that a little more cash will go to technology and a little less to infrastructure. My colleague Bill Powell notes that Beijing’s construction heavy plan looks like something the U.S. could use, while China could stand to put more money toward health care and similar social safety net programs that are being emphasized in Washington. If there was one message that emerged from Friday’s press conference of China’s top economic officials, it was that China is doing all it can but it still needs the U.S. to get its act together. For all that pointed talk, there was one listener who was not so interested. As China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan and National Development and Reform Commission head Zhang Ping discussed the details of the spending plan, a reporter two seats to my left began nodding off and then snoring heavily. I considered nudging him, but then let him rest. Some folks don’t respond well to stimulus.