China Worker: China: Splits at the top as economy falters

22.4.12

China Worker: China’s economy is growing at its slowest rate for three years and fears of a ‘hard landing’ are on the rise. This, and the top-level power struggle inside the Chinese dictatorship were key topics when Diana Beaumont of 3CR community radio in Melbourne interviewed Vincent Kolo, senior editor of chinaworker.info, on his recent visit to Australia. The following is a transcript of the interview.

Listen to the podcast here: http://podcast.3cr.org.au/pod/3CRCast-2012-04-07-72204.mp3

Diana: This week I spoke at length with Vincent Kolo, who is the senior editor of the chinaworker.info website, for the Committee for a Workers’ International in Hong Kong. And I began by asking him how close to crisis the Chinese economy actually is.

Vincent: I think this is something that’s being debated all around the world by the heads of big corporations and governments, because China plays such a central role in the global economy. I mean it’s been the real locomotive for world capitalism in the last four years. It’s taken over largely from the former role that the US played. Whereas the US was sucking in consumer goods from the rest of the world, China is sucking in primary goods, resources, energy, so it’s been a boon to countries like Australia, Brazil, African and other oil producers.