The latest data released by China on Wednesday shows that the country’s rapid growth in money supply has continued. Mr. Zhou and his colleagues at the Chinese central bank have only begun the difficult and dangerous task of reining it in —– a task that still lies ahead of the United States Federal Reserve as it begins its own gradual taper this year.

The amount of money sloshing around China’s economy, according to a broad measure, has now tripled since the end of 2006. That dwarfs the indirect effects of quantitative easing in the United States, where the broadly measured money supply rose only 55 percent from 2006 through the end of November.

China’s tidal wave of money has driven asset prices through the roof. Housing prices have soared, feeding fears of a bubble while leaving almost everyone else feeling poor.