A few years ago it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to imagine European leaders, begging bowl in hand, turning to Beijing for a financial bail-out. Equally, few would have predicted that Chinese leaders visiting Washington would publicly berate US policymakers about their mismanagement of the world’s biggest economy. But the world has changed. The 2008 implosion of the financial system in America and Europe, and last year’s European sovereign debt crisis, have accelerated the shift of economic momentum to Asia.
In 2012 the US and Europe are likely to be flirting with recession for much of the year. Barring a hard landing in China, Asia excluding Japan should continue to clip along nicely at about 7 per cent, according to most economists.
The dramatic change in fortunes has spawned a degree of triumphalism among some Asians. “There’s no crisis of capitalism,” says Lord Desai, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics. “There’s a crisis of western capitalism, which has gone geriatric. The dynamic capitalism, with its energy, innovation and sheer greed for growth, has moved east.”