What Three Waves of Debt Crisis Have Taught China

China has experienced three waves of debt crisis since reform and opening up was launched in 1978. They were triggered by different things and the government reacted with different tactics. But the real culprit behind each crisis was the same: an overheating economy and too much debt taken on by enterprises. The government played an important role in every one of the crises. It confronted the problems by essentially bailing out state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and banks through massive injections of capital.