For twenty years, China appeared to have discovered a formula the rest of the world couldn't match.
Entire cities seemed to rise almost overnight. China built the world's largest high-speed rail network, became the factory floor of the planet, dominated industries from steel to solar panels, and eventually began challenging the West in electric vehicles, batteries, robotics and artificial intelligence.
The numbers seemed to confirm the story.
But by 2026, something strange is happening.
On September 15, China released its latest economic data. Industrial production was still growing by 5.2%. High-tech manufacturing was growing by 16.7%. Exports were booming.
Yet Chinese consumers were barely spending more than they had a year earlier. Retail sales in August increased just 0.4%. Fixed-asset investment had fallen 7.2% in the first eight months of the year. Private investment was down 10.1%. And investment in real estate — the sector that once powered an enormous part of China's expansion — had collapsed almost 20%.
This video investigates the uncomfortable possibility behind those numbers:
China's economic miracle was real — but the image it created may have hidden how fragile the system underneath it had become.
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