For decades, experts have been predicting a crash in China.
They warned that the centrally planned, export-dependent economy, could not sustain itself year after year.
But through multiple crises, China has motored along, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the process.
But things appear to be different this time. Corporate profits are tanking, and the Shanghai Composite is at the same levels it was during the depths of the 2008-2009 crash. A hard landing has hit the corporate sector.
And many are questioning whether policymakers are really in control of the slowdown this time, or if the economy is in fact heading for a hard landing i.e. four straight quarters of below five percent growth.
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Chinese leaders are on notice.
A recently announced infrastructure stimulus showed that Beijing is starting to worry about the depth of its economic slowdown.
But it also signaled that its economic rebalancing has been put on hold.
How did China get to this point? When did exports and infrastructure start driving the economy? And what is driving bearish sentiment now?
We look at how the Chinese economy has changed since 1978 and the biggest challenges it has lying ahead.
China has changed rapidly in the last two decades. This is Shanghai in 1990
And this is Shanghai in 2010
Big changes came to China in 1979 when policymakers implemented reforms to open its economy
The contribution of exports to GDP surged from 4.6 percent in 1978, when reformists like Deng Xiaoping began to implement market-oriented reforms. The ratio of exports to GDP climbed to 19.2 percent in 1997 as the country became increasingly exposed to global demand.
Source: Bank of America
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