In this landmark work of investigative reporting, former Financial Times correspondent Alexandra Harney uncovers a story of immense significance to us all: how China's factory economy gains a competitive edge by selling out its workers, environment, and future. Harney's firsthand reporting brings us face-to-face with a world in which intense pricing pressure from Western companies combines with ubiquitous corruption and a lack of transparency to exact a staggering toll in human misery and environmental damage. This eye-opening expose offers, for the first time, an intimate look at the defining business story of our time.
China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country’s rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China’s path. In the first post-Mao decade, China’s reformers were sharply divided. They agreed that China had to reform its economic system and move toward more marketization—but struggled over how to go about it. Should China destroy the core of the socialist system through shock therapy, or should it use the institutions of the planned economy as market creators? With hindsight, the historical record proves the high stakes behind the question: China embarked on an economic expansion commonly described as unprecedented in scope and pace, whereas Russia’s economy collapsed under shock therapy. Based on extensive research, including interviews with key Chinese and international participants and World Bank officials as well as insights gleaned from unpublished documents, the book charts the debate that ultimately enabled China to follow a path to gradual reindustrialization. Beyond shedding light on the crossroads of the 1980s, it reveals the intellectual foundations of state-market relations in reform-era China through a longue durée lens. Overall, the book delivers an original perspective on China’s economic model and its continuing contestations from within and from without.
How should the West respond to the inexorable rise of China? Hugh White attempts to answer the key geopolitcal question of the 21st century - one which will have momentous consequences for us all.
Two leading experts on China evaluate its rise throughout the past one hundred fifty years, sharing portraits of key intellectual and political leaders to explain how China transformed from a country under foreign assault to a world giant.
The Qing dynasty office purchase system (juanna), which allowed individuals to pay for government appointments, was regarded in traditional Chinese historiography as inherently corrupt and anti-meritocratic. Lawrence Zhang's groundbreaking study of a broad selection of new archival and other printed evidence contradicts this widely held assessment.
A controversial look at the impending Chinese economic collapse—the history behind it, its contemporary causes, and its dire implications for the global economy All the experts agree: the 21st century belongs to China. Given America's looming insolvency and the possibility of the collapse of the U.S. dollar, who can doubt that China is poised to take over the role of economic superpower? Written by political economist and leading financial journalist James Gorrie, this book offers a highly controversial, contrarian view of contemporary China. Drawing upon a wealth of historical and up-to-the-minute data, Gorrie makes a strong case that China, itself, is on the verge of an economic crisis of epic proportions. He explains how, caught in a recurrent boom/bust cycle that has played itself out several times over the past sixty years, China is again approaching total economic and social collapse. But with one important difference this time: they may very well take the entire global economy down with them. Explores the Chinese communist party's unfortunate history of making costly and very bloody mistakes on an enormous scale One-by-one Gorrie analyzes those critical mistakes and explains how they may lead to economic collapse in China and global depression Describes Chinese "cannibal capitalism," and where its massive abuse of the country's environment, people, and arable lands is leading that country and the world economy Chronicles China's history of recurring economic crisis and explains why all the evidence suggests that history is about to repeat itself
This is the first systematic study of modern China's military campaigns and the actual fighting conducted by the People's Liberation Army since the founding of the People's Republic. It provides a general overview of the evolution of PLA military doctrine, and then focuses on major combat episodes from the civil war with the Nationalists to the last significant combat in Vietnam in 1979, in addition to navy and air operations through 1999. In contrast to the many works on the specifics and hardware of China's military modernization, this book discusses such topics as military planning, command, and control; fighting and politics; combat tactics and performance; technological catch-up and doctrinal flexibility; the role of Mao Zedong; scale and typologies of fighting; and deterrence. The contributors include scholars from Mainland China, Taiwan, and the United States, who draw from a wealth of fresh archival sources.
The world needs a strong America, and America needs an economic revival after the Coronavirus season of shutdowns. Can the playbook that resulted in the greatest job market in history put Americans back to work? From the first moments of his presidency, Donald J. Trump put US economic revival at the top of his agenda. Cutting red tape and slashing business tax rates made companies eager to locate in America again. A surge in corporate investment led to record numbers of US job openings. But there was also another force at work at the start of the Trump era, and it’s impossible to provide a fair accounting of Trump’s governance without noting the unique obstacles he’s faced. The President’s critics styled themselves “The Resistance,” as if they were confronting a tyrant at the head of an invading army rather than their duly elected President. Much of the media establishment regularly—and wrongly—accused him of betraying the country. Most disturbing was the resistance movement inside government, formed even before the 2016 election, which unleashed unprecedented surveillance against Donald Trump. The political and media warfare has never ended. Just as an impeachment case collapsed in the Senate earlier this year, the world was beginning to realize how large a threat the Chinese communist government had become—and what it had been hiding in Wuhan. The destruction caused by the coronavirus is the latest and greatest test for the Trump prosperity agenda. Once again the health and wealth of the world depend on US leadership for economic revival. This is the story of the man US voters chose to lead in 2016 and will soon consider to lead again.
The new edition of a comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy, revised to reflect the end of the “miracle growth” period. This comprehensive overview of the modern Chinese economy by a noted expert on China's economic development offers a quality and breadth of coverage not found in any other English-language text. In The Chinese Economy, Barry Naughton provides both a broadly focused introduction to China's economy since 1949 and original insights based on his own extensive research. This second edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect a decade of developments in China's economy, notably the end of the period of “miracle growth” and the multiple transitions it now confronts—demographic, technological, macroeconomic, and institutional. Coverage of macroeconomic and financial policy has been significantly expanded. After covering endowments, legacies, economic systems, and general issues of economic structure, labor, and living standards, the book examines specific economic sectors, including agriculture, industry, technology, and foreign trade and investment. It then treats financial, macroeconomic, and environmental issues. The book covers such topics as patterns of growth and development, including population growth and the one-child family policy; the rural and urban economies, including rural industrialization and urban technological development; incoming and outgoing foreign investment; and environmental quality and the sustainability of growth. The book will be an essential resource for students, teachers, scholars, business practitioners, and policymakers. It is suitable for classroom use for undergraduate or graduate courses.
