China and India represent two of the most important forces reshaping the global economy, but they have arrived at this moment having followed very different paths. China surged ahead through manufacturing, exports, and an activist, but authoritarian state. India, by contrast, followed a more uneven path, shaped by democracy, a robust services sector, and a different relationship between government and markets.
He served as Britain’s secretary of state for business, innovation and skills from 2010 to 2015 and later as leader of the Liberal Democrats. Cable is an author and former politician who has spent decades thinking about the changing global economy. Before entering politics, he worked in government, international organisations, academia, and the private sector—including as chief economist at Shell. Cable argued that India now has stronger growth momentum While manufacturing has powered much of China’s remarkable growth in recent decades. “China is visibly slowing and struggling economically. I call it a combination of a crisis of communism and a crisis of capitalism,” explained Cable. “The crisis of capitalism comes from the collapse of a property bubble, the wealth effects that have flowed from that, and weak demand. The crisis of communism comes from the waste of capital, the very high ratios of capital to output. They are now getting these very innovative high-tech industries, but a lot of Chinese industry and infrastructure is very inefficient in economic terms, so you’ve got a slowing Chinese economy and an Indian economy that’s accelerating.”
Today, he is a professor in practice at the London School of Economics’ School of Public Policy.
