WASHINGTON — China is exporting something new to the world economy: Fear.
Global investors are quaking over the prospect of a devastating slump in the world’s second-biggest economy. And they’re fast losing confidence that China’s policymakers, seemingly so sure-footed in the past, know how to solve the problem.
The worst-case scenario is that a collapsing Chinese economy would derail others around the world — from emerging markets in Chile and Indonesia to industrial powers such the United States, the European Union and Japan.