Local governmental debts in China seem to be in a more precarious position than local government debts in the USA. The scale of Chinese local government debts far surpasses that of the USA. Further, Chinese local gove...Local governmental debts in China seem to be in a more precarious position than local government debts in the USA. The scale of Chinese local government debts far surpasses that of the USA. Further, Chinese local government debts appear to be expanding at an alarming rate in the past decade or so. This research focuses on grand strategies for dealing with Chinese local government debts. There are five research questions for this paper： 1） What is the size of the Chinese government debts？ 2） Are Chinese local government debts controllable？ 3） Who or what caused the rapid increase of the Chinese local government debts？ 4） Is it possible to have individual accountability for increasing local government debts in the future？ and 5） Will it be helpful to create a local government debt management organization in the Chinese central government？ Based on the available literature, this analysis also utilizes in death interviews with 13 government officials, policy analyst, and scholars. First, this paper identifies the size and categories of debts related to Chinese local governments. Then this paper illustrates various ways and methods of Chinese local governments to obtain leverage. After analyzing the causes and origins of these debts, the research demonstrates a potential local systematic risk. By contrast to its advantages and disadvantages, the paper suggests that the local governmental debts need to be constrained. It is important to restrict debt growth in terms of issuing, buying, repurchasing, collateralizing, etc. within a legal framework. With the consideration of political mechanisms in China, the research suggests that the central government establishes a specific organization to help normalize the local governmental debts with the function of supervision and management. The research also believes that it will be an effective way to control the growth of local debts if the central government can hold the relevant top leaders/officials of local governments to be accountable for their performances related to debt accumulation.展开更多
文摘Local governmental debts in China seem to be in a more precarious position than local government debts in the USA. The scale of Chinese local government debts far surpasses that of the USA. Further, Chinese local government debts appear to be expanding at an alarming rate in the past decade or so. This research focuses on grand strategies for dealing with Chinese local government debts. There are five research questions for this paper： 1） What is the size of the Chinese government debts？ 2） Are Chinese local government debts controllable？ 3） Who or what caused the rapid increase of the Chinese local government debts？ 4） Is it possible to have individual accountability for increasing local government debts in the future？ and 5） Will it be helpful to create a local government debt management organization in the Chinese central government？ Based on the available literature, this analysis also utilizes in death interviews with 13 government officials, policy analyst, and scholars. First, this paper identifies the size and categories of debts related to Chinese local governments. Then this paper illustrates various ways and methods of Chinese local governments to obtain leverage. After analyzing the causes and origins of these debts, the research demonstrates a potential local systematic risk. By contrast to its advantages and disadvantages, the paper suggests that the local governmental debts need to be constrained. It is important to restrict debt growth in terms of issuing, buying, repurchasing, collateralizing, etc. within a legal framework. With the consideration of political mechanisms in China, the research suggests that the central government establishes a specific organization to help normalize the local governmental debts with the function of supervision and management. The research also believes that it will be an effective way to control the growth of local debts if the central government can hold the relevant top leaders/officials of local governments to be accountable for their performances related to debt accumulation.
