China's Economic Lesson - NYTimes.com With luck, those who tout infrastructure construction as the surefire path to economic recovery in the United States will find the emerging situation in China sobering ("Construction and Real Estate Hinder China's Growth," Business Day, Sept. What China is now discovering is what many have known for a long time: we build infrastructure to provide services that foster things like economic growth, public health or environmental enhancement, not solely to keep people busy. Although construction of needed infrastructure will certainly reduce unemployment in a hard-hit sector of the economy, ultimately ports must move freight, high-speed trains must carry passengers, and office buildings must have tenants. Given that many projects have been financed by sales of government-owned land and with loans from government-controlled banks that are routinely rolled over rather than repaid, China's infrastructure sits on a rather shaky economic foundation. If building new infrastructure does not provide a real economic or social return, that capital would be better deployed elsewhere. The writer is a senior fellow specializing in infrastructure at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California.