China’s Long March Back to Stagnation
Although drawing simplistic lessons from the past must always be avoided, modern and ancient Chinese history does provide ample evidence that the country owes its four decades of explosive economic growth to markets, not to state institutions. While the latter can aid development, they also can impede or prevent it, as now seems to be happening.
OXFORD – As the world grapples with the implications of ominous shifts within China, MIT economist Yasheng Huang, an astute long-term observer of the Chinese economy, has produced a well-timed book. In The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline, he combines a close examination of contemporary China with an ambitious (sometimes overly so) assessment of the country’s recent and distant past.