Chinese regulators are turning to recent Japanese history for economic lessons, determined to keep the world's second biggest economy from taking the same path of recession and deflation that has blighted its neighbor for the past 20 years.
Beijing views Tokyo's handling of the liberalization of capital flows and the yen over 30 years ago as key factors that led to the creation and subsequent implosion of its asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s, according to Japanese government and other sources who are in direct contact with Chinese regulators.
"They aren't a single bit interested in Japan's successes. Their biggest interest is in Japan's mistakes," one China-based source who is directly in touch with Chinese regulators said on condition of anonymity.