China Speakers Bureau: Why China's consumers won't save the world

Tom Doctoroff by Fantake via Flickr

Wrongly the world hopes China's consumers will contribute to the economic rescue of the world. Not anytime soon, writes Tom Doctoroff in the Huffington Post.

Over the next decade, Chinese consumers will not save the world; they can not make up for a sharp pullback in U.S. consumption. The Chinese, poor by global standards, are extremely cautious, ruthlessly price conscious and risk averse. This tendency, reflected in a bargaining impulse that approaches blood sport, is underpinned by: a) contemporary government policy and b) ancient cultural imperatives - i.e., assumptions regarding the relationship between society and individual. The relevance of the latter is indicated by persistently high savings rates even in "developed" Chinese societies such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

More in the Huffington Post.

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Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your conference, do get in touch.
Tom Doctoroff also contributed to our recently released book A Changing China.