China's economic slowdown and market crash often evoke comparisons with Japan's bust in the 1990s, a period that saw the world's second-largest economy of the time tip into prolonged stagnation.
Both economies experienced rapid, debt-fueled growth that spurred soaring real estate prices and stock market bubbles. Japan's run-up eventually ended in a hard landing that the country is still recovering from. The argument says China could end up suffering a similar fate.
Yet a more apt parallel may instead be its neighbor's experience of the 1960s. That's according to Paul Sheard, chief global economist at ratings company Standard & Poor's in New York, who worked in Japan between 1976 and 2006.