Beijing's Winning Stimulus

At the conclusion of two days of meetings in Washington last week, representatives from China and the United States reaffirmed their mutual commitment to continuing a "Strategic and Economic Dialogue." Yet, constructive rhetoric masked many of the worries each country has about the other one's long-term financial health. China is worried about its investments in U.S. bonds; America is worried that the Chinese economic model is unsustainable; and neither much like the position of mutual dependence. What's more, it's becoming apparent that the two governments are not equally adept at managing their economies, and that the one doing worse is not the one with a disastrous legacy of state-mandated production, but instead the one that until recently was an icon of economic dynamism.