Will China fall into the middle/high income trap?

This episode is part of the ZhōngHuá Mundus series of The Sound
of Economics.



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The middle-income trap describes a situation in which a country,
having attained a certain income level, gets stuck there (due to
given advantages). The high-income trap is of a similar nature,
because although the positioning of these economies might be more
advantageous to begin with, they find it difficult to promote
innovation in manufacturing or upgrade to higher value-added
services to remain competitive and provide benefits to a wider
spectrum of society.



In this episode of The Sound of Economics, Giuseppe Porcaro and
Alicia García-Herrero are joined by Syaru Shirley Lin, Compton
Visiting Professor in World Politics at the Miller Center of
Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. They discuss the
middle/high-income trap in East Asia, and especially in China. Is
the high-income trap different between East Asia and Western
Europe, especially in terms of their economic relationship with
China? How has COVID-19 changed the economic landscape?