"There is a significant risk in the short term of financial crisis or other degree of economic crisis that would carry very substantial social and political costs for the Chinese government. By the time the global financial crisis hit in 2008-09, it had already met most of its investment needs for its level of development, economists say. To keep growth high, China in the 2010s doubled down on infrastructure and property investment, at the expense of household consumption. China has since backed away from major financial market liberalisation while plans to rein in state behemoths and introduce universal social welfare never quite materialised. "But at the same time there's a great fear of the short-term political and social risk, especially of provoking an economic crisis."

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Persons: Xi Jinping's, William Hurst, Chong Hua, there's, Max Zenglein, We're, Logan Wright, Alicia Garcia Herrero, Hurst, Liangping Gao, Kevin Yao, Kripa Jayaram, Marius Zaharia, Sam Holmes Organizations: Development, University of Cambridge, International Monetary Fund, Asia Pacific, China's, Reuters Graphics, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, China, Japan, Beijing, Natixis