Invest in infrastructure for sustainable growth

China faces two separate challenges: the long-term issue of a declining potential growth rate and the immediate problem of below-potential actual growth.

Indeed, the government's supply-side reform strategy will go a long way toward doing just that, ultimately stabilizing and even raising China's growth potential. But, contrary to popular belief, they will not boost China's actual growth rate today.

Why are so many economists convinced that a long-term reform strategy is all China needs? One reason is the widely held notion that today's overcapacity reflects supply-side problems, not insufficient demand. According to this view, China should implement policies like tax cuts to encourage companies to produce products for which there is genuine demand. That way, the government would not inadvertently sustain "zombie enterprises" which cannot survive without bank loans and support from local governments.