Statism with Chinese Characteristics : A History of China's Reforms and Reversals

This book traces the progress and reversals of Chinese economic reforms and sheds light on the current significant challenges facing Chinese economy. Signs are becoming more and more clear that Chinese economy, and even its politics, may experience rising tumult and this book provides backgrounds and insights on these developments.

Statism with Chinese Characteristics offers a fresh perspective on the Chinese economy and its impact on the world. By diving into details and data such as the private nature of rural enterprises, early financial reforms, and the critical role of initial political openness, Yasheng Huang challenges the popular view that credits China's success to a unique blend of government interventions and autocratic governance. Huang shows how China's growth was driven by private entrepreneurship and gradual liberalization, not by infrastructural development, statist finance, and meritocratic autocracy. He confronts assumptions regarding the conventional wisdom about the Chinese economy, explicitly engaging with the policy pivot from the 1980s to the 1990s and infrastructure as a crucial factor behind China's growth. Underscoring the significant role of politics in shaping economic outcomes, this second edition explores the challenges facing the Chinese economy today, emphasizing how political changes dictate economic reforms, rather than the opposite.