The Real Story Behind China’s Manufacturing Capacity — and Why it’s so Hard to Change
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The Real Story Behind China’s Manufacturing Capacity — and Why it’s so Hard to Change

February 18, 2026 — China’s manufacturing capacity has become a central fault line in global trade. While Beijing has acknowledged the problem rhetorically and launched a high-profile anti-involution campaign, capacity continues to expand, prices keep falling, and trade surpluses are widening. In this webinar episode of Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis (CCA)’s The Year of Rebalancing series, moderator and CCA Fellow Lizzi C. Lee is joined by CCA Non-Resident Fellow Brendan Kelly and Gavekal China Research Director Andrew Batson to unpack the drivers behind China’s overcapacity problem, why market forces are failing to self-correct, whether Beijing is genuinely adjusting course, and what a plausible new equilibrium might look like. (35 min., 6 sec.) Subscribe for more videos like this: http://AsiaSociety.org/YouTube --- Support Asia Society today: http://AsiaSociety.org/Donate --- Subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected: https://asiasociety.org/email-subscriptions --- Facebook: http://facebook.com/AsiaSociety Instagram: http://instagram.com/AsiaSociety Twitter: http://twitter.com/AsiaSociety LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/asia-society/ #asiasociety #asiasocietypolicyinstitute #centerforchinaanalysis