China's fear of stagnation said to drive overseas deal crackdown

Shanghai

PRESIDENT Xi Jinping's top economic adviser commissioned a study earlier this year to see how China could avoid the fate of Japan's epic bust in the 1990s and decades of stagnation that followed.

The report covered a wide range of topics, from the Plaza Accord on currency to a real-estate bubble to demographics that made Japan the oldest population in Asia, according to a person familiar with the matter who has seen the report.

While details are scarce, the person revealed one key recommendation that policymakers have since implemented: The need to curtail a global b…