In China, a TV soap on corruption attracts a mass following
And one character—an official obsessed with GDP growth—becomes a cult hero
RARELY has a Chinese city boss had more fans than Li Dakang, the earnest, driven Communist Party chief of Jingzhou. “I want development, I want speed and I want GDP,” he recently intoned. “But I want it to be modern GDP, GDP that comes without pollution.” Over the past month tens of millions have tuned in to watch him strive to fulfil these promises. On their smartphones, they share images of the heavy-eyed man with an easy smile, quoting his words and cheering him on. His policies have even been immortalised in a musical tribute, “The GDP Song”.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “In the name of GDP”
Finance & economics May 13th 2017
- India needs to curb a borrowing spree by its state governments
- The investment- management industry faces a big squeeze
- The EU ponders moving euro clearing from London after Brexit
- Africa’s informal economy is receding faster than Latin America’s
- In China, a TV soap on corruption attracts a mass following
- A new sort of hedge fund relies on crowd-sourcing
- William Baumol, a great economist, died on May 4th
- 2017 Marjorie Deane internship
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