Demystifying the Chinese economy / Justin Yifu Lin.

"Translated from the original Chinese by Stephanie Wang with further updated and revisions by Francesca Yu Sang and Bruce Ross-Larson"--P. [v].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Opportunities and challenges in China's economic development -- Why the scientific and industrial revolutions bypasses China -- The great humiliation and the socialist revolution -- The comparative advantage-defying, catching-up strategy and the traditional economic system -- Enterprise viability and factor endowments -- The comparative advantage-following development strategy -- Rural reform and the three rural issues -- Urban reform and the remaining issues -- Reforming the state-owned enterprises -- The financial reforms -- Deflationary expansion and building a new socialist countryside -- Improving the market system and promoting fairness and efficiency for harmonious development -- Reflections on neoclassical theories.

China was the largest and one of most advanced economies in the world before the eighteenth century, yet declined precipitately thereafter and degenerated into one of the world's poorest economies by the late nineteenth century. Despite generations' efforts for national rejuvenation, China did not reverse its fate until it introduced market-oriented reforms in 1979. Since then it has been the most dynamic economy in the world and is likely to regain its position as the world's largest economy before 2030. Based on economic analysis and personal reflection on policy debates, Justin Yifu Lin provides insightful answers to why China was so advanced in premodern times, what caused it to become so poor for almost two centuries, how it grew into a market economy, where its potential is for continuing dynamic growth and what further reforms are needed to complete the transition to a well-functioning, advanced market economy.