This book aims to explain the secret to China’s rapid growth over the last 40 years from the viewpoint of a firsthand witness. Zheng Xinli was enrolled as a graduate student of economics 40 years ago, at a time when very few Chinese people could enroll in higher-level education, let alone graduate school. Since 1978, he has been engaged in the study of macroeconomic theory and economic policy. He has worked with the economic group of the Research Section of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Information Center, and the Policy Research Office of the State Planning Commission, as well as other organizations. His work serves to help Chinese leaders in making economic decisions. In 2013, Zheng Xinli appeared on the list of China’s Top Ten Economists. With the addition of several up-to-date articles, this book is mainly a condensed version of a 16-volume collection of essays selected from among the more-than-500 articles published by Zheng between 1981 and 2016. Addressing some of the major issues in China, namely, Reform and Development, Development Patterns, Macro Regulation, Balanced Urban and Rural Development, Innovation, and Industry Revitalization, the book, as Zheng himself puts it, visualizes the birth process of different policies and measures which have catered to the different stages of reform. As an insider, and also partly as a designer and architect, Zheng Xinli provides readers with a view of China’s reform from the top.

China's extraordinarily rapid economic growth since 1978, driven by market-oriented reforms, has set world records and continued unabated, despite predictions of an inevitable slowdown. In The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China?, renowned China scholar Nicholas R. Lardy argues that China's future growth prospects could be equally bright but are shadowed by the specter of resurgent state dominance, which has begun to diminish the vital role of the market and private firms in China's economy. Lardy's book arrives in timely fashion as a sequel to his pathbreaking Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China, published by PIIE in 2014. This book mobilizes new data to trace how President Xi Jinping has consistently championed state-owned or controlled enterprises, encouraging local political leaders and financial institutions to prop up ailing, underperforming companies that are a drag on China's potential. As with his previous book, Lardy's perspective departs from conventional wisdom, especially in its contention that China could achieve a high growth rate for the next two decades—if it reverses course and returns to the path of market-oriented reforms.

" In 1978, China launched economic reforms that have resulted in one of history’s most dramatic national transformations. The reforms removed bureaucratic obstacles to economic growth and tapped China’s immense reserves of labor and entrepreneurial talent to unleash unparalleled economic growth in the country. In the four decades since, China has become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, and a leading force in international trade and investment. As the contributors to this volume show, China also faces daunting challenges in sustaining growth, continuing its economic ransformation, addressing the adverse consequences of economic success, and dealing with mounting suspicion from the United States and other trade and investment partners. China also confronts risks stemming from the project to expand its influence across the globe through infrastructure investments and other projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, appears determined to make his own lasting mark on the country and on China’s use of its economic clout to shape the world around it. "

Leading Chinese economist Jinglian Wu provides an insightful and comprehensive examination of China's strategy and implementation of its economic reform.

The Logic of the Market by Weiying Zhang—considered China’s “leading market liberal”—comprises his most influential essays on economics over the past three decades. First published in China in 2010, this revised edition contains three new essays, which offer those outside China a deeper understanding of the Chinese economy. “Market competition is a really just competition to create value for others... Only through this approach did the Western economy advance over the past 200 years. It is also the reason for China’s economic marvel over the past 30 years,” writes Weiying. Readers will appreciate Weiying’s ability to address both everyday economic issues and the questions that confront a nation’s leaders, not the least a nation seeking to escape mass poverty. The economic reforms and subsequent growth in China may be the most astonishing and hopeful event of our age. Weiying was among the leaders who set China on its path of change. Here he elucidates the pitfalls and the progress of economic reform, celebrating leaders who mixed sustained idealism with judicious compromise. Readers seeking to learn from China’s successes will find much of interest here. Weiying emphasizes the importance of entrepreneurs in the new China. He concludes, “The key for China, as the country with the world’s largest population, to return to being the largest economy lies in allowing the entrepreneurial spirit to develop the potential of the domestic market.” For that to happen, Weiying recommends that China continue to reduce the state-owned economy, lessen government control over the economy, and—over the next 30 years—emphasize political reform to build a constitutional democracy. His thinking is not limited to China. Some of these essays also focus on the global financial crisis—how Keynesian policies can only be effective for the short term and will bring long-term negative consequences. Weiying provides a unique perspective on his country’s market economy, implementation of economic policies, and the potential for Chinese economic development. “I hope that the logic of the market becomes every person’s ideal,” he writes. “That is my reason for writing this book.”

Nine papers by various authors discussing aspects of economic reform in China over a 20 year period.

A comprehensive analysis of how China emerged as one of the most dynamic trading nations in the world, first published in 1992.