China's Crisis of Success

Explores how China has reached a threshold where continued success requires re-invention of its economy and politics.

William H. Overholt (Author)

9781108431996, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 January 2018

302 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.49 kg

'William Overholt, who may have been the first to identify the 'rise of China' in his 1993 book of that name, goes straight to the heart of the puzzles presented by contemporary China. … This is an eye-opening book that debunks many established notions held by disciplinary academics, as well as by policymakers both in China and the West.' Gilles Andréani, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

China's Crisis of Success provides new perspectives on China's rise to superpower status, showing that China has reached a threshold where success has eliminated the conditions that enabled miraculous growth. Continued success requires re-invention of its economy and politics. The old economic strategy based on exports and infrastructure now piles up debt without producing sustainable economic growth, and Chinese society now resists the disruptive change that enabled earlier reforms. While China's leadership has produced a strategy for successful economic transition, it is struggling to manage the politics of implementing that strategy. After analysing the economics of growth, William H. Overholt explores critical social issues of the transition, notably inequality, corruption, environmental degradation, and globalisation. He argues that Xi Jinping is pursuing the riskiest political strategy of any important national leader. Alternative outcomes include continued impressive growth and political stability, Japanese-style stagnation, and a major political-economic crisis.

Foreword
Introduction
1. China model/Asia model
2. The economic crisis of success
3. Critical social issues of the transition: inequality, corruption, environment, globalization
4. China's governance crisis of success
5. China's political economy under Xi Jinping
6. What will happen?

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]