China's Economy
A Collection of Surveys
by Iris Claus, Les Oxley
ISBN: 1118982479 | 2015
This collection of critical surveys provides readers with a range of up-to-date work from leading scholars in the area, writing on some of the key issues facing China, as they survey the present and future challenges of the Chinese economy.
Nine papers provide detailed discussion on key aspects of the past, present and future of the Chinese economy. Leaders in their relevant fields of scholarship tackle some of the critical issues facing China. Contributors identify common themes, including the household registration system, urbanization, demographic transition, inequality and the sustainability of economic growth Articles provide a critical review of the literature and discuss policy implications and areas for future researc
Thirsty Dragon
China's Lust for Bordeaux and the Threat to the World's Best Wines
by Suzanne Mustacich
ISBN: 162779087X | 2015
An inside view of China's quest to become a global wine power and Bordeaux's attempt to master the thirsty dragon it helped create. The wine merchants of Bordeaux and the rising entrepreneurs of China would seem to have little in common—old world versus new, tradition versus disruption, loyalty versus efficiency. And yet these two communities have found their destinies intertwined in the conquest of new markets, as Suzanne Mustacich shows in this provocative account of how China is reshaping the French wine business and how Bordeaux is making its mark on China.
Thirsty Dragon lays bare the untold story of how an influx of Chinese money rescued France's most venerable wine region from economic collapse, and how the result was a series of misunderstandings and crises that threatened the delicate infrastructure of Bordeaux's insular wine trade. The Bordelais and the Chinese do business according to different and often incompatible sets of rules, and Mustacich uncovers the competing agendas and little-known actors who are transforming the economics and culture of Bordeaux, even as its wines are finding new markets—and ever higher prices—in Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong, with Hong Kong and London traders playing a pivotal role.
At once a tale of business skullduggery and fierce cultural clashes, adventure, and ambition, Thirsty Dragon offers a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges facing the world's most famous and prestigious wines.
Tibet Facts and Figures 2015
by Beijing Review
| The Tibetan Plateau maintained close contacts with other parts of China in the political, economic and cultural fields in history. Tibet was officially put under the jurisdiction of the Central Government of China in middle of the 13th century, which is held by historians as the inevitable result of the historical development of China. In the 700-odd years thereafter, Tibet was ruled by the upper-class monks and lay people. During the period, the Central Government exercised rule over the territory of Tibet. China, Tibet included, was reduced into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society after 1840. While leaving no stone unturned to carve up China, imperialist powers worked hard to cultivate people who stood for national separation. These people did their best to incite Tibetan independence, but failed to succeed. |
CHINA 2030
by World Bank
ISBN 978-0-8213-9545-5
CHINA'S economic reforms have seen few breakthroughs in the past few years, or so the analysts tend to think. As the country prepares for big changes due in its top leadership after a Communist Party congress late this year, senior officials are becoming even less inclined than usual to take risks that might damage their careers. And with the economy still growing rapidly, despite the rest of the world's problems, many of them see no urgent need for change.
The World Bank thinks differently. In a 468-page report, “China 2030”, it has set out a huge range of policy measures it says are needed in order to prevent the country from eventually falling into a “middle-income trap” of much slower growth. Its suggestions range from weakening the grip of state-owned enterprises to letting the market play a bigger role in the setting of interest rates. Such ideas have been aired by others before, but World Bank officials suggest there is a chance their report could help nudge China into action.
It will certainly be widely noted in China. Unlike the bank's last report of this kind (“China 2020”, published in 1997), this one was co-authored with a government think-tank, the Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council. The DRC is an influential organisation which supplies the government with policy advice. The finance ministry was also involved. A deputy prime minister, Li Keqiang, who is expected to take over as prime minister from Wen Jiabao next year, is thought to have played an active role in arranging this co-operation between officialdom and the bank.
Having the DRC's name on the document gives China's reformers cover. The World Bank is viewed with suspicion by hardliners, who see it as a meddler in the affairs of developing countries and a purveyor of ideas that could undermine party rule in China. With a semi-official stamp of approval on it, the report will be less easy for conservatives to dismiss as part of a Western plot. In turn, it's believed, the DRC used the World Bank as cover in its discussions with foot-dragging bureaucrats (“Don't blame us for these proposals, blame the bank”). At times, behind closed doors, the DRC argued for even bolder reforms than the bank itself was suggesting.
The bank, however, should be prepared for disappointment. In the buildup to the party congress, a bit of reformist posturing is only to be expected. Different factions in the party want to air their agendas in order to influence the policy choices of the new leaders. A hint of this emerged in a commentary in the People's Daily (in Chinese) on February 23rd. It said some officials wanted to keep things as they were in order to avoid criticism, but that this would eventually result in an even greater crisis. “No matter how thorough plans are, or how intelligently crafted they are, reforms will always be attacked,” it said, giving warning that mere “tinkering” with reform had been the downfall of great nations and parties.
Also on February 23rd, details emerged of a proposal by the People's Bank of China (long an outlier among Chinese bureaucracies for its reformist hue) for accelerating reform of capital controls with the aim of making the yuan a global reserve currency. The plan was published in the China Securities Journal (in Chinese). But despite the World Bank's efforts to persuade the Chinese government that reform is relatively easy to manage in good times, prospects for quicker action still look dim, at least in the near term.
China's new leaders will likely take at least a few months to consolidate their power and settle in before they feel confident enough to tackle economic reforms that affect powerful vested interests, such as the bureaucracy that controls state enterprises or the ministry of commerce. (Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC, describes the influence of these groups in a detailed chapter in his new book, “Sustaining China's Economic Growth After the Global Financial Crisis”). Even then, it is very unlikely that those who take over leadership of the party in a few months' time will be any stronger than their predecessors when it comes to taking on the conservatives.
XI JINPING
THE GOVERNANCE OF CHINA
by Xi Jinping
ISBN-13: 978-7119090573
This book is a compilation of Xi Jinpings major works from November 15, 2012 to June 13, 2014; it comprises 79 speeches, talks, interviews, instructions and correspondence in 18 chapters. Each item is accompanied by relevant notes about Chinas social system, history and culture for readers reference. It also includes 45 photos taken at different stages of Xis life, providing readers with more information about his work and life. The publication of this book in various languages is of great significance. It will contribute to interpreting the concepts and principles of governance of the CPC leadership, and help the international community to learn more about and better understand Chinas ideas, path of development, domestic and foreign policies, and response to international concerns about China.
The Silk Road
A New History
by Valerie Hansen
ISBN-13: 978-0190218423
The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history.
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
by Evan Osnos
ISBN-13: 978-0374535278
“In the pages of the New Yorker, Evan Osnos has portrayed, explained and poked fun at this new China better than any other writer from the West or the East. In Age of Ambition, Osnos takes his reporting a step further, illuminating what he calls China's Gilded Age, its appetites, challenges and dilemmas, in a way few have done.” ― John Pomfret, Washington Post
On China
by Henry Kissinger
ISBN-13: 978-0143121312
No one can lay claim to so much influence on the shaping of foreign policy over the past 50 years as Henry Kissinger.”
The Financial Times
The Last Empress
Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China
by Hannah Pakula
![]({"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWG6w4b4L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[228,346],"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yWG6w4b4L._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[329,499]})
ISBN-13: 978-1439148945
Starred Review. Pakula, an experienced biographer of royal women (An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick), looks at the imperious (if not imperial) wife of the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, presenting a richly complex account of 20th-century China that, despite its length, remains thoroughly engrossing to the end. Born May-ling Soong (1897–2003) and educated in America, Madame Chiang and her five Soong siblings were wealthy, Christian, fluent in English and major players in Chinese politics. Marrying Chiang Kai-shek in 1927, the strong-minded and hot-tempered, shrewd and ruthless May-ling quickly became a partner in his efforts as Chinese leader until the Japanese invaded, and then in 1945 when Mao's Communists drove him to Formosa (modern-day Taiwan), which he ruled until his death in 1975. From the 1930s to 1950s, Americans idolized Madame Chiang as a symbol of Chinese resistance to the brutal Japanese and as an anticommunist stalwart. But critics of her and Chiang's ineffective, authoritarian, corrupt leadership soon became the majority. Pakula draws a vivid if often unflattering portrait of a charismatic Chinese patriot, her husband and family, in tumultuous and tragic times.
Mao
The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
ISBN-13: 978-0679746324
The most authoritative life of the Chinese leader every written, Mao: The Unknown Story is based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao’s close circle in China who have never talked before — and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao: he was not driven by idealism or ideology; his intimate and intricate relationship with Stalin went back to the 1920s, ultimately bringing him to power; he welcomed Japanese occupation of much of China; and he schemed, poisoned, and blackmailed to get his way. After Mao conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. In chasing this dream he caused the deaths of 38 million people in the greatest famine in history. In all, well over 70 million Chinese perished under Mao’s rule — in peacetime.
The China Dream
Great Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in the Post-American Era
ISBN-13: 978-1627741408
"Liu Mingfu has written a subtle, sophisticated history of how he and many of his colleagues perceive American grand strategy since George Washington. Then, he proposes what China needs to do in the decades ahead so as not to "give the world to America." He argues not only for a Chinese defense force equal to the American military, but make an appeal to Americans to give up our domineering "hegemony." He prefers instead that we relax while a nation with 5,000 years of history leads the world with its superior virtue. American readers will be surprised to see how he recommends China follow many lessons from our history since 1776, but avoid our dark side. He praises the three greatest Chinese emperors of Qin, Han and Tang who combined a peaceful economic rise with a marital spirit and strong military forces." Michael Pillsbury,Director of the Center for Chinese strategy Hudson Institute Washington DC
China CEO: Voices of Experience from 20 International Business Leaders
by
ISBN-13: 978-0470821923
CHINA CEO: Voices of Experience From 20 International Business Leaders is based on interviews with 20 top executives and eight experienced consultants based in China. The book is packed with first-hand, front-line advice from veterans of the China market. Hear directly from the top executives heading up the China operations of Bayer, British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, General Electric, General Motors, Philips, Microsoft, Siemens, Sony and Unilever, plus expert China-based consultants at Boston Consulting Group, Korn/Ferry International, McKinsey & Company, and many more.
One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China
by James McGregor
ISBN-13: 978-0743258395
Companies from around the globe are flocking to China to buy, sell, manufacture, and create new products, but as former Wall Street Journal China bureau chief turned successful corporate executive James McGregor explains, business in China is never quite what it seems. One Billion Customers offers compelling narratives of personalities, business deals, and lessons learned, creating a coherent pictures of China's emergence as a global economic power with a dog-eat-dog business climate that has turned bureaucrats into billionaires and left many foreign business executives with their pockets turned inside out.
