Tax reductions on small-engine cars, subventions for clean car technology, subsidies for vehicle purchases in the countryside - China has adopted a legion of measures to try and perk up its ailing car industry. Objective: to boost sales and restructure the entire industry.

While other countries are struggling to hold on to their depleting money supplies, cash-rich China is rapidly strengthening its position in the competition to secure overseas natural resources.

China's financial system had isolated it from the worst of the financial crisis, but it has not been spared the effects of the world economic downturn. World Bank senior economist Louis Kuijs spoke with Radio86 about what awaits China in 2009.

How China is coping with the financial crisis and the economic slowdown that comes on its heel is a major talking point these days. In the second part of our interview, David Dole, senior economist for the Asian Development Bank office in Beijing, discusses the impact the economic slowdown would have on migrant workers and other sectors of society.

How China is coping with the financial crisis and the economic slowdown that comes on its heel is a major talking point these days. In the first of a two-part interview, David Dole, senior economist for the Asian Development Bank office in Beijing, explains the general outlook on China and the challenges the country faces as it deals with the effects of the financial crisis.

The bankruptcy of Chinese toy maker Smart Union last month took many by surprise. Not least the over 6,500 workers who are now unemployed. Does the financial crisis provide too easy an excuse for personnel cuts and company closures?

Unlike the US and some countries in the Eurozone, China seems to have been spared the brunt of the global financial crisis. But declining demand for Chinese exports has already affected thousands of ordinary workers. With factory after factory closing down, the unemployment rate in China could see an unprecedented rise.