Red Flags on Growth

China's workers have made their country the workshop of the world over the past three decades. Low wages and high productivity growth in China have kept prices down throughout the world. It is China's workers who have fueled exports and, with it, economic growth.

Low wages and waves of young new workers filling factories are becoming a picture from the past. Three powerful trends will put new pressure on the low-wage, low-skill recipe in the coming years. How successfully China navigates these challenges will go a long way toward determining whether or not it gets stuck in an economic dead-end or if it's able to grow its way out of trouble.