China should not wait to stimulate its economy

JOURNALISTS LOVE a telling quote—so much so that they will sometimes seize hold of a telling misquote. Zhou Enlai, who was China’s first Communist prime minister, was once asked what he thought of the French revolution. “Too early to say,” he replied. His priceless answer was based on a misunderstanding: he was referring to the student unrest in Paris in 1968, only four years earlier. But his words helped cement the reputation of China’s leaders for farsightedness.