Vampire state -- The rise and fall of the Chinese economy

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Ian Williams has attracted a lot of attention with his critical commentaries on China in publications such as The Spectator in London and a lengthening list of books. His latest, ‘Vampire state – The rise and fall of the Chinese economy’ was published last year and described as a “hard-hitting exposé” by Nigel Inkster, a former MI6 director of operations and intelligence in London.
“Williams demonstrates how the Chinese Communist Party’s obsession with exercising uncontested power has led to pervasive corruption and unintended consequences for China’s own population and the world at large,” Inkster observed.
Ian bills his latest work as “the terrifying story of China’s vampire economy”.
“There have been numerous descriptions of the Chinese economy,” he writes. “However, none seems to capture the predatory, at times surreal, nature of the economy of the world’s most populous nation – nor the often bruising and mind-bending experience of doing business with the Middle Kingdom.

“Rules and agreements mean little. Markets are distorted, statistics fabricated, foreign industrial secrets and technology systematically stolen. Companies and entrepreneurs, at home and abroad, are bullied – often with the collusion of the victims themselves. The [Chinese Communist] Party is in every boardroom and lab, with businesses thriving or dying at its will.

“All this is part of realising President Xi Jinping’s ambition of China becoming the world’s pre-eminent economic, technological and military power.”
“This is a timely and important read,” Tej Parikh wrote in the Financial Times – before President Donald Trump upset the applecart of international trade in a tariff war nobody wanted.
“Williams’s sceptical prognostications about China’s economic future are hard to argue against, particularly as the state is right now struggling to revive ‘animal spirits’ that have weakened, in part, because of President Xi Jinping’s recent clampdown on wealth-creators and tech firms. Still, with China’s dominance in emerging technologies, critical minerals and green industries, it is also difficult to write it off,” said Parikh.

A former FCCT president, Williams covered business and technology for the Sunday Times before becoming a long-time foreign correspondent in Russia and then Asia. During a 25-year career overseas, he was based in bureaus in Moscow, Hong Kong, Beijing and Bangkok for Channel 4 News and then NBC, the American network. He has also covered conflicts in the Middle East, Balkans and Ukraine. His previous book, ‘The fire of the dragon’, was shortlisted for the UK’s annual Orwell Prize and reissued in a second edition in early 2024.

Ian will be in discussion at the FCCT with Keith Richburg, a member of the Washington Post’s editorial board since 2023, and a veteran observer of Xi Jinping and China. Keith’s storied career as a foreign correspondent includes postings as the Post’s bureau chief in Beijing and Hong Kong. He was president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong from 2021 to 2023.

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