Abstract:
Both the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the global economic crisis in 2008 have left an indelible imprint on the Chinese economy. During both crises, China's export-led economy was adversely affected by a decrease in regional and global demand. However, the prevailing view on the efficacy of China's policy choices during both financial crises has been positive. The Chinese Communist Party's response was widely considered to be unparalleled in terms of the scale and speed of implementation. This thesis aims to discover the development of policy responses that is premised on a more capacious understanding, taking into account the many threads of history, culture, political tradition, beliefs, and values that weave the entire fabric of China's policy choices in the event of a financial crisis. In pursuing the inquiry into China's policy responses during financial crises, a number of questions will be addressed; namely, is there a common pattern in the government's policy response, what are the key priorities that dominate the government's agenda, how have policy choices evolved? To answer these questions, government key policy responses subsequent to both crises will be examined. Data are primarily collected from scholarly journals, government web pages, databases, and other documents. The findings suggest that the Chinese government drew lessons from the successes and failures of the Asian financial crisis, and those policy decisions are affected by factors such as culture, political tradition, and international considerations to different degrees.
