BYD's one millionth car, the Han EV, rolling off the production line in Shenzhen, May 20, 2021. Credit: BYD
How much does Beijing spend on its industrial policy goals? A new estimate suggests the figure could be much larger than first realized.
In May, a team of researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington, D.C., think tank, calculated that China spent around 1.7 percent of GDP — about $250 billion — in 2019 on supporting various industries, an amount that dwarved that of any other major economy.
Now, a revised estimate shared with The Wire puts that figure even higher. By adjusting the assumptions made in CSIS’s original calculation, Scott Kennedy, its chair in Chinese Business and Economics, estimates that China could be spending an amount roughly equivalent to 4.9 percent of its GDP ($700 billion) annually on pursuing its industrial policy aims, a figure some 12 times greater than that of the United States.Based on 2019 data.
This week, The Wire takes a closer look at China’s industrial policy spending: how much it spen
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