Staring Down an Economic Reckoning in the Detroit of China

choi

Julie Makinen, Staring Down an Economic Reckoning in the Detroit of China; If China has the will to order mass layoffs at state-run firms -- 1.8 million in the steel and coal sectors alone -- Changchun and other rust belt cities will be hit hard. Los Angeles Times, Mar 6, 2016.
http://graphics.latimes.com/china-economy/
("Between 2008 and 2012, the region's [Northeast's] GDP grew at 12.4% a year — outpacing the national average — as the nation went on a building spree and an emerging middle class turned China into the world's biggest auto market.  But the region, rich in coal, oil and iron ore, has been hit by plunging commodity prices and a nationwide slowdown in construction. Overcapacity in state-run steel mills and other factories has sapped growth. Last year, three of China's four slowest-growing provinces were in the northeast — Liaoning (GDP up 3%), Heilongjiang (5.7%) and Jilin (6.5%)")


Note:
(a) "It’s midday Thursday in Changchun, the Detroit of China, and auto factory retiree Zhang Jinchuan is nearly three sheets to the wind. He and two friends are lunching at a hole-in-the-wall, swigging rice wine and beer and puffing on cigarettes."

Three Sheets to the Wind. The Phrase Finder, undated.
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/three-sheets-to-the-wind.html
(b) "Baiyinchaolu, the Communist Party chief of Jilin"  吉林省委书记 巴音朝鲁