If you were one of China's top leaders, what would keep you from a sound sleep at night?

That was the unexpected topic of a roundtable luncheon attended by two dozen Hong Kong business leaders yesterday when, officially, it was meant to be a debate on the overheating of the nation's economy.

Edward Chen, president and chair professor of economics at Lingnan University of Hong Kong, was so optimistic that he felt most people have been "misreading China." He brushed off the notion of "soft landing," "hard landing" or "crash landing" as irrelevant. "The economy is going to cruise quite nicely," said the keynote speaker.

By Raymond Zhou

It's useless to argue whether the mainland economy is once again growing too fast, or overheating.

When investment in fixed assets grew (our sources in Beijing didn't cite the specific amount), 53 per cent in the January-February period compared with the same period last year and hit a peak since 1994; and when the supply of energy and raw materials are under their worst strains, hardly anyone can have the confidence not to say the economy is overheating.

China is overheating. There is no question about it. And the central government has been trying various tactics to cool it down beginning with the corporate finance regulations for real estate developers issued by the People's Bank of China last year. But apparently, just a few attempts at intervention didn't suffice.

By Zhang Xiaogang