Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China's Development (1949-2020) - Hardcover

by Tiejun Wen (Author), Lau Kin Chi (Contribution by), Sit Tsui (Contribution by)

This open access handbook, Ten Crises systematically traces the economic historyof China from 1949 to 2020, unravelling the complex domestic and global factorsleading to the cyclical crises identified by WEN and his research team, andexamining the corresponding counteracting policies and measures by thegovernment to resolve or defer the crises. The book offers profound insights intoChina's endeavours and predicaments on the path of modernization, andcontemplates opportunities and lessons for the forging of alternative trajectoriesnot only for China but also for the global south: to reconstruct rural communitiesfor integrated cooperation and governance, and to revitalize ecological civilization.

Back Jacket

This open access book contextualizes China's 70 years of contemporary history against one coherent backdrop: a late developing country endeavoring at all costs to industrialize, whether it was in the name of socialism or capitalism. This path is even more complicated by China's getting caught in the geo-political confrontation of two superpowers in the 20th century: the Soviet Union and the USA. The author argues that China could only cope with these costs by internalizing them. As one of the leading scholars of agrarian issues in China, the author emphasizes the role of rural sector having been a source of surplus extraction for industrialization and the receptor of cost of development being transferred by the urban sector.

Author Biography

Wen Tiejun is Director of the Centre of Rural Revitalization, Peking University;

Executive Dean of the Institute of Rural Reconstruction of China, Southwest

University; and Executive Dean of the Institute of Rural Reconstruction of the

Straits, Fujian Agricultural and Forestry University, China. He is a leading scholar

on macro-economics and agrarian issues, Independent Non-Executive Director of

Postal Savings Bank of China, and policy advisor to the State Council and the

Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China.