The question of whether China can, or should, sustain an annual GDP growth rate of around 7% obscures a bigger question can China innovate sufficiently to continue growing despite mounting environmental constraints
Based on a discussion among economists at the Boao Forum for Asia last week, the answer is maybe.
Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, said 7-ish percent was probably right for a country whose per capita income is 25% that of the United States, based on purchasing power parity.
He said a rule of thumb of the past 30 years of development has been that countries playing economic...