Book Talk: The China Paradox - At the Front Line of Economic Transformation

Date: 

Thursday, March 1, 2018, 4:15pm to 5:30pm

Location: 

Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200 North

You are invited to a discussion about economic transformation in China with Dr. Paul G. Clifford, author of The China Paradox - At the Front Line of Economic Transformation.

Jie Bai, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, will serve as a respondent. Anthony Saich, Daewoo Professor of International Affairs and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Director, will moderate. 

Refreshments will be served.

China ParadoxThe China Paradox - At the Front Line of Economic Transformation

Published by De Gruyter

How can we explain China’s totally unanticipated emergence over the last four decades? Why were old dogmas discarded and foreign ideas embraced? What lies behind these changes which have set free the nation’s pent up energy? How have world class Chinese firms risen from the rubble of the disastrous Maoist model? Are we now witnessing backsliding which could put the bold experiment at risk?

In The China Paradox, At the Front Line of Economic Transformation, business strategist and China historian Dr. Paul G. Clifford uses examples from his career in China to lay bare the complex and painful process of economic reform which produced the delicate balance of forces, the China paradox, at the heart of China’s success. He explains how, against all the odds, the ruling Communist Party boldly led the economic reforms as the surest way to preserve its grip on power. This flourishing of China’s hybrid developmental model is placed in the historical context, shedding light on the legacies that thwarted earlier attempts at change.

He provides analysis of successful business models adopted by Chinese firms as they take their place in the global economy. And beyond that he examines broader political, economic, social and cultural factors in China that could sustain or disrupt the China paradox. He poses the question of whether, without further reform, China’s political governance could become increasingly out of kilter with the nation’s goal of moving up the ladder towards a knowledge economy