In Deng’s day, it used to be: To get rich is glorious. Not any more. It seems the Chinese have too much money, and should learn to be less greedy. Consumption is the new propaganda. With exports tanking, China needs to rely more than ever on Mr & Mrs Lee for GDP growth. The government wants to see this as a lasting trend, and is pushing policies to make it so. The latest is allowing non-deposit-taking institutions to make consumer loans.

Check out the English story here. The new policy comes from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), and it caught my eye last week. I’ve been reading a lot lately on China’s consumer credit market, which is relatively underdeveloped. The average American carriers five credit cards, while the average Chinese has less than one. I’m not advocating the Chinese spend like Americans – we know where that road dead ends. But two credit cards on average might be nice, and I’m sure (or at least hope) the Chinese would be more frugal with them.

According to the China Daily story cited above: Some retailers have already benefited from consumer loans. Data from the CBRC shows that Suning Appliance Co, Ltd., one of China's leading electronic retailers, has seen its sales value up 40 percent as of May since it launched appliance credit in cooperation with banks in June 2005. Gome, Dazhong and other Chinese appliance retailers also followed Suning's example, launching similar credit consumption models in 2005.