Does China need a "new Zhu Rongji" to clean up the industrial economy? After all, the popular perception is that the country is awash in manufacturing overcapacity (which it now exports abroad).

The answer to that question would be no ... but it does need a new Zhu to clean up the real estate sector and stop the local government debt spiral. The reality is that excess manufacturing capacity is limited to a few key areas, and China is not gaining industrial export market share. This doesn't mean that the economy is "fine", however – just that the real problems are elsewhere, in the ongoing real estate disaster and ever-increasing fiscal and quasi-fiscal debt ratios, both of which would very much benefit from a more proactive Zhu-style cleanup.