TOKYO -- Pessimism about China's economy prevailed among financial industry folks from various parts of Asia who recently gathered in Hong Kong. A focal point of their discussion was whether China will follow a once-thriving Japan that now refers to its recent past as the "lost decades."
At this kind of discussion, Chinese corporate debt had to be considered. It equaled 166% of the country's gross domestic product as of September 2016, up from less than 100% in 2008.