The rest of the global economy may be experiencing a credit crunch, but not China, where easy credit has fueled a spectacular run-up in real estate prices and stock markets. Despite a cascade of State Council decrees restricting bank lending this year and a high-profile Politburo meeting in November that focused on the risk of inflation, bank lending last month grew by over 800 billion renminbi ($112 billion) -- equivalent to 22% of the total loan quota that Beijing's technocrats meted out to state-owned banks for 2008.

This rate of credit expansion is similar to the rate last seen in the second quarter of last year, when China's economy grew by nearly 12% from a year earlier. And it comes just as the Party is trying to ratchet down inflation, which in January hit 7.1% year-on-year on consumer prices.

Technical factors don't fully explain why the monetary base grew with such fervor in January. The lunar new year holiday took place earlier this year than usual, driving up demand for cash. However, new year cash spending usually means withdrawing one's savings, not borrowing from banks. A severe winter snow storm forced the central government to release tens of billions of renminbi in funds to pay for emergency spending. But this amount would be a blip in the Chinese monetary landscape, which runs into the trillions of renminbi in a given quarter.

More convincingly, major borrowers are pressuring banks to lend out as much of the credit quota as possible. Companies want to take advantage of low real interest rates and lock in cheap cash for the remainder of the year. Although large firms, many of which are powerful state-owned entities, are undoubtedly exerting pressure on banks, State Council loan ceilings precisely seek to minimize the effect of firm pressure by coordinating all banks simultaneously to cut back on lending. However, bankers called the technocrats' bluff and proceeded to lend with gusto. In effect, they are daring Beijing technocrats to enforce the credit ceiling and risk a widespread liquidity shortage in the latter part of the year.

This is an unusual game of chicken. China's major banks, all of which are majority state-owned and run by managers appointed by the Communist Party, are simply ignoring decrees issued by the highest authorities. In a state-dominated banking system, this is as unexpected as mid-level managers blatantly acting against the wishes of both the CEO and the board of directors. Formally the technocrats have the full backing of the ruling Communist Party and can dismiss any banker at any time. However, senior state bankers do not behave as if they take the threat of removal seriously. They've stared down such threats before, anyway -- in China, elite political discord has often compelled banks to disobey formal decrees.