The Chinese are, in all times and places, debt-averse and China's government which, unlike ours, must take long-term responsibility for the economy, is no different. Mao set the example and grew GDP by 6.2 percent annually for twenty-five years without incurring a penny of debt, a feat probably unmatched in history. His successors have been less debt-averse but their more holistically-designed economy–all strategic resources, from finance to land, are owned in common–allows China to incur ninety percent of her debt when she borrows money from herself, without intermediaries, to create productive, publicly-owned assets. The Chinese treasury may thus decide when and how to deal with non-performing loans without fear of contagion or disruption. Wealthy Australia, by contrast, borrows billions abroad for military hardware which it records as assets, though they consume twenty percent of their cost each year in maintenance and produce no revenue. Autre pays, autre atouts.