China’s Macroeconomic Response to the Global Recession: Ideational Sources and Substantive Contents

Confronted with a looming global recession in 2008–2009, Chinese policymakers quickly concurred on a multipronged package of fiscal, monetary, household, and social remedies. No doubt, crisis exigencies and an authoritarian political system contributed to their prompt convergence on this policy response. However, to more fully and accurately explain the substantive content and macroeconomic logic of this quick policy concurrence, an alternative ideational explanation is needed. This article delineates one such explanation. Chinese policymakers quickly concurred on their package response because epistemologically receptive and knowledgeable technocrats, equipped with operational experience and institutional capacity, diagnosed their predicament and pursued logically appropriate remedies, in accordance with a policy paradigm of macroeconomic fundamentals.