The New China Playbook
Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
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- £14.99
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- £14.99
Publisher Description
Financial Times Best Summer Books of 2023
'Essential reading' Tony Blair
A revelatory, myth-dispelling exploration of China's juggernaut economy
Although China's economy is one of the largest in the world, Western understanding of it is often based on dated assumptions and incomplete information. In The New China Playbook, Keyu Jin burrows deep into the mechanisms of a unique system, taking a nuanced, clear-eyed, and data-based look inside. From the far-reaching and unexpected consequences of China's one-child policy to the government's complex relationship with entrepreneurs, from its boisterous financial system to its latest push for technological innovation, Jin reveals the frequently misunderstood dynamics at play.
China is entering a new era, soon to be shaped by a radically different younger generation. As it strives to move beyond the confines of conventional socialism stained by shortages and capitalism hindered by inequality, the world is about to witness the emergence of a completely new dynamic between two diametrically opposite systems. The thorough understanding of China's playbook that Jin provides will be essential for anyone hoping to interpret the nation's future economic and political strategy. While China's rise on the world stage has stirred a wide range of emotions, one thing is certain: a deep understanding is essential for successfully navigating the global economy in the twenty-first century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Americans' misunderstanding of China's economic growth keeps the two nations in unnecessary conflict, argues Jin, a professor at the London School of Economics, in her thoughtful debut. "Consumers, entrepreneurs, and the state: in China none of them behaves like a conventional economic agent," she argues, suggesting that China's economy works through a distinctive interplay between a powerful central state and an ascendant private sector. Digging into the history of China's recent economic boom, she tells how in 1978 Deng Xiaoping, China's supreme leader, instituted reforms moving the country away from Soviet-style central planning toward a market economy, inaugurating a system in which the state retained wide-reaching powers that allowed it to bolster the fledgling economy. Jin emphasizes the success of China's hybrid model, noting that reforms lifted hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty, but she sometimes comes across as overly sanguine, as when she discusses polls that suggest Chinese citizens overwhelmingly have positive views of their government without noting whether this holds for, say, Uyghur people oppressed by the state. Still, she makes clear that the Chinese economy is far more complex than U.S. discourse lets on, and she offers an astute take on how the Chinese state cooperates with and intervenes in the private market. This elevates the conversation on U.S.-China relations.