Ryan Research Podcast Is China's Growth Sustainable? - Lei Gong and Miquel Vila - Research Podcast Ep. 23
This podcast episode was originally a live Twitter Spaces held on July 19, 2025. This was a debate on the prompt: Is China's growth sustainable? Lei Gong (Twitter: gonglei89, commentator on China and economics) took the affirmative and Miquel Vila (Twitter: MiquelVilam, geopolitical analyst) took the negative. Peter Ryan (Twitter: _peterryan, host of the Ryan Research Podcast) acted as the moderator.
The prompt will be our starting point but we will seek to provide nuanced understanding that goes beyond the simplicity of just this prompt. In particular, we question if nominal growth always correlates to real prosperity. Two, we question if a slowing of growth means something is going wrong or if the economy has just reached high levels of development from a low starting point. This will not be a discourse centered in polemics like Gordon Chang or Peter Zeihan nor saying China is 100 percent perfect. Expect topics like GDP measurements, trade wars, industrial policy, multipolarity, and demographics.