A recent collision between high-speed trains in Wenzhou, China, killing 39 people, could prompt China to tap the brakes on its booming economy, says Peter Stein in The Wall Street Journal. In their fervor to stave off unemployment and the social unrest that accompanies it, Chinese officials have been laser-focused on promoting artificial growth at any cost. But the consequences have included a massive accumulation of local-government debt, corruption, and, in cases like the train crash, tragedy. Here's an excerpt from Stein's argument:
Social frustrations mount and burst into the open when flaws in the state-led growth strategy become public. An outpouring of fury on Chinese websites over the Wenzhou high-speed rail crash on July 23 is a case in point. Railway officials blamed the crash of a high-speed train into the rear of a stalled train on "serious design flaws" in the signaling equipment.... Questions will now inevitably be raised as to whether the project prioritized spending over quality control, with lethal results.
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