China has achieved tremendous economic progress in the last three decades, but there is much work to be done to make the economy resilient to large shocks, ensure the sustainability of its growth, and translate this growth into corresponding improvements in the economic welfare of its citizens....

In the mid-1990s, mainstream economists of nearly all stripes commonly recommended capital account liberalization -- that is, allowing a free flow of funds in and out of a country's economy -- as an essential step in the process of economic development. But then came the East Asian financial...