Lessons come in handy, but this challenge is bigger

China has seen a financial crisis before: the Asian financial turmoil of 1997-98. That crisis, triggered by the collapse of the Thai baht, got really bad in the fall of 1998 when rumors spread that the yuan could be devalued and international speculators attacked the Hong Kong dollar.

But China pulled through the crisis mainly by increasing domestic spending. Many of the high-quality roads in and between Chinese cities and much of its Internet and mobile communication networks were built or were started at that time.

That experience has proved useful now that the global financial crisis threatens to cause an economic recession. The difference this time is that the crisis is global, not regional, and hence the challenge is more serious demanding a more focused attention from the government.