By all normal indicators, China should be headed for a massive setback. The last couple of decades have been characterized by amazing, double-digit growth. It has also been characterized, especially in recent years, by a credit boom and massive overinvestment as the Chinese government has leaned on bank loans to keep growth on target.
A few years ago, I visited a "third tier" Chinese city, where my group saw evidence of a boom everywhere we looked. But all the trucks were carrying construction materials, not goods.
At the workshop-level factory we visited, one of my fellow travelers, who spoke Chinese, learned that the owners were trying to sell it because they could get more from the land than they could from making farm equipment.