As Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year, they often gather around a “hot pot”: a pot of boiling water into which you throw vegetables, cabbage, onions, mushrooms, tofu, rice noodles and then thin strips of beef and lamb, which everyone dips into savoury sauces and devours. There is always “something for everyone” in a Chinese hot pot. China and its ruling party are looking into their collective hot pot. Some of the ingredients are more pleasant looking than others, and the resulting flavour could be anyone’s guess.

Shadow banking

The accumulation of massive amounts of risky debt are finally moving from the shadows into the sunlight and the figures are staggering. So-called shadow lending by lightly regulated finance entities and Chinese banks doubled from 2010 to 2012 to reach 36 trillion yuan (US$5.93 trillion), according to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. At the end of 2013, Chinese banks alone accounted for 11 tril