Sources of Chinese Economic Growth, 1978-1996 (Studies on Contemporary China)

"This analysis of the political economy of growth in China during the transition era takes issue with the growth-accounting methodologies and market-centred explanations which constitute the conventional wisdom. By analysing the experience of four very different Chinese regions, the book shows that these external sources of growth were much less important than the conventional wisdom allows." "Nevertheless, even this 'developmental state' approach is inadequate, because it fails to explain why industrial policy has been so much more successful in China than in other countries. The answer offered in this book is that state autonomy was the key." "The policy implications are stark. The Chinese experience demonstrates that industrial policy and state spending on physical and social infrastructure can produce rich rewards. But attempts to replicate China's success in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia will fail because their governments are too weak to resist rent-seeking by classes and interest groups. Moreover, as the state becomes weaker in the wake of the re-emergence of a powerful capitalist class, even Chinese growth may prove unsustainable."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.