In Transforming China Peter Nolan examines the enormous challenges faced by China's policymakers. Spanning a period of thirty years, from the late 1970s to the present day, the essays in this book address different aspects of those challenges. The 'development' challenge involved devising policies that would raise the mass of the Chinese people out of poverty and avoid the disasters that had, in the worst cases, caused millions of deaths through famine. The 'transition' challenge involved, firstly, resolving the relationship between change in the economic and political systems, and secondly, finding the correct sequence and nature of reforms necessary to improve economic performance. The 'globalization' challenge involved identifying the best way in which to integrate China's economic system with the international economy at a time of revolutionary change in the global business system.
These essays seek both to enhance understanding of China's immense success in meeting these challenges in the past, and to provide an indication of the challenges that still lie ahead.
1 The starting point of liberalization : China and the former USSR on the eve of reform 7
2 China's new development path : towards capitalist markets, market socialism or bureaucratic market muddle? 45
3 Politics, planning, and the transition from Stalinism : the case of China 77
4 Democratization, human rights and economic reform : the case of China and Russia 103
5 Beyond privatization : institutional innovation and growth in China's large state-owned enterprises by Wang Xiaoqiang and Peter Nolan 131
6 China and the global business revolution 185
7 The challenge of globalization for large Chinese firms by Zhang Jin and Peter Nolan 233
8 The causation and prevention of famines : a critique of AK Sen 297
Epilogue : Adam Smith and the contradictions of the free market economy : a note