Masahiko Aoki, Hyung-Ki Kim, Masahiro Okuno Fujiwara, The Role of Government in East Asian Economic Development, Oxford University Press, 1998.
This collection of papers stems from a recent World Bank project focused upon the contentious issue of whether government has played any positive role in the success of the so-called "high-performing" Asian economies. It goes beyond the influential World Bank volume The East Asian Miracle to chart a middle ground that recognizes diversity among the different East Asian economies, as well as the evolutionary nature of government intervention.

Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine, Owl Books, 1998.
Via his painstaking research and reporting that included two treks through interior Chinese provinces, Becker tells how the famine occurred because ill-trained peasants were forced to undertake a gigantic and centralized industrial and agricultural expansion. The new factories, canals, and irrigation systems failed spectacularly, and in contrast to propaganda boasts of having economically outstripped the U.S., in reality the populace was driven by starvation to cannibalism, slavery, and madness.

Laurence J. Brahm, China’s Century: The Awakening of the Next Economic Powerhouse, John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
China's Century examines why China's economy is expected to overtake that of the U.S.--from both a Western and Chinese perspective. Woven together with commentary from Laurence Brahm, this book will cover a wide range of current topics, featuring a number of leading names from both China and the West such as Ezra Vogel, Brent Scowcroft, and Zhou Nan.

Daniel Burstein, BIG DRAGON: The Future of China, Free Press, 1999.
China by the year 2030 will be not only the world's most populous nation, but also the world's largest economy, a superpower in every sense of the word. Big Dragon draws a nuanced portrait of the historic changes now underway in China and drafts a practical blueprint for maintaining constructive Sino-American relations. The book is a must read for anyone concerned with international business, finance, or politics. It has something for everyone.

Fang Cai, The China Miracle, The Chinese University Press, 2003.
The book is suitable for both academic researchers and for others interested in China. Its captivating theory makes it excellent reading for courses on China's economy." -- Carsten A. Holz, The China Review

Tim Clissold, Mr. China, Collins, 2005.
In the early 1990s, British businessman Clissold--with a passing knowledge of China and of Mandarin--found himself the point man between a group of Wall Street bankers with hundreds of millions to invest and a budding entrepreneur class in China strapped for cash and foreign expertise. This seemingly perfect marriage would become, as one investor put it, "the Vietnam War of American business”.

Ted C. Fishman, China, Inc., Scribner, 2005.
A lively, fact-packed account of China's spectacular, 30-year transformation from economic shambles following Mao's Cultural Revolution to burgeoning market superpower, this book offers a torrent of statistics, case studies and anecdotes to tell a by now familiar but still worrisome story succinctly.



Mary Elizabeth Gallagher, Contagious Capitalism : Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China, Princeton University Press, 2005.
Contagious Capitalism is a first-rate book that presents an important, new argument about Chinese political economy and reform. Well-written and thoroughly researched, it makes a novel contribution to the literature. The relationship between foreign direct investment and the evolution of labor reforms in China is very misunderstood. This book contributes in significant ways to this important area of knowledge.

Ethan Gutmann, Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal, Encounter Books, 2005.
Ethan Gutmann points out in his book "Losing the New China", businesses in China even evolved rote, but effective responses to concerns about China's human rights' problems - the most important of which is that "American business is the long-term catalyst for better human rights in China." What makes Gutmann's book so effective in exposing the emptiness of this claim is that he was once a true believer in it.

George Haley, New Asian Emperors : The Overseas Chinese, Their Strategies and Competitive Advantages, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998.
Finally, a book to help Western business leaders understand the business philosophies and practices of the Overseas Chinese. Many practices of multinationals need to be altered if they are to compete with, or work with, the Overseas Chinese.

Harvard Business Review Series (Editor), et al, Harvard Business Review on Doing Business in China, Harvard Business School Press, 2004.
The 50th title in the HBR paperback series highlights what every company must know to successfully enter and compete in the world's fastest-growing economy The potential opportunity in China is huge: it is home to a quarter of the world's population, domestic consumer spending in China is growing by up to 10% a year, and relaxed regulatory restraints have opened China up to unprecedented levels of foreign investment.

Yasheng Huang, William Kirby (Series Editor), Selling China, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
“Professor Huang is fast becoming one of the most influential voices in the American academy on the subject of the Chinese economy. This is a book that will have a major impact on scholars and indeed on investors, and maybe even on China itself. It will surely change the way that contemporary Chinese political economy is studied and taught in universities.” William Kirby, Harvard University

Atul Kohli, State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
“We are at a moment when one of the grandest projects of the twentieth century - the rise of multiple new states in Africa and Asia on the ashes of European colonial empires - seems at risk of falling to multiple plagues. From the histories of those that have succeeded and failed, as well as those in-between, [Kohli] draws the recipes that have worked (and not worked) for states to give their citizens a reasonable chance to lead a decent life by inducing industrialization.” Joel S. Migdal, University of Washington, Seattle

Nicholas D. Kristof, China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, Vintage Books, 1995.
Kristoff and WuDunn ponder a central paradox: an explosion of wealth and entrepreneurship in the world's third biggest economy (after the U.S. and Japan) flourishes under a repressive, authoritarian regime. They report on widespread alienation from the government, massive rural poverty, rampant bribery and corruption, increasing discrimination against women in the workplace, routine abduction and trafficking in women and children. The authors also perceive "the embryo of a civil society" emerging that may one day undermine the dictatorship.

Nicholas Lardy, China's Unfinished Economic Revolution, Institution Press, 1998.
This timely book by Lardy explains: 1) the intermingling of China's gradualist reform, the inefficiency of SOE and the evolving banking system; 2) the structure and practise of the banking system of China; 3) some of the implications of the looming financial crisis in China. It thus serves as a critical and timely piece for readers to gauge what has been wrong for China and what the policy implications are.



Cheng Li, China's Leaders, Roman and Littlefield Publishers, 2001.
Who will govern China at the dawn of the twenty-first century? What are the social backgrounds and career paths of the new generation of leaders? How do they differ from their predecessors in their responses to perplexing economic and sociopolitical challenges? Drawing upon a wealth of both quantitative and qualitative data on the so-called fourth generation of leaders--those who were young during the Cultural Revolution--Cheng Li sheds valuable light on these key questions.

Kang Liu, Liu Kang, Globalization and Cultural Trends in China, University of Hawaii Press, 2003.
In this timely and provocative work, Liu Kang offers a guide to post-1989 Chinese culture and its transformation into a post-revolutionary capitalist state. The picture he draws is of an emergent world power whose institutions have not yet succeeded in rendering its character clear or coherent. Neither socialist nor capitalist, modern nor postmodern, China's is a hybrid culture that embodies the fundamental tensions and contradictions of globalization.

Jim Mann, Beijing Jeep: The Short, Unhappy Romance of American Business in China, Simon & Schuster, 1989.
In 1979, American Motors began a joint venture with Beijing Auto Works to manufacture jeeps in China, soon discovering that West and East had different, irreconcilable goals. Publishers Weekly called this an "informative, well-researched account.

Thomas G Moore, China in the World Market, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Thomas G. Moore examines the role of the outside world as a source of change in post-Mao China. Based on extensive documentary and interview material, the book adds the Chinese case to a long tradition of country-based studies by political economists, historians, and area specialists that have chronicled the experiences of developing countries as they enter specific industrial markets in the world economy.

Andrew J. Nathan, Bruce Gilley, China's New Rulers: The Secret files, NYREV, 2003.
China's New Rulers, based on leaked secret Communist Party files that were compiled in choosing China's "Fourth Generation" of leaders, offers an unprecedented glimpse into the most orderly transition in the history of the People's Republic. It reveals the backgrounds, characters, and visions for the future of the men who will rule China for the next five years, profiles other key figures in the party, government, and military, and provides new perspectives on Jiang Zemin's 13 years in power.

Barry Naughton, Growing out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform 1978-1993, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Growing Out of the Plan is a comprehensive study of China's economic reforms, from their beginnings at the end of 1978 through the completion of many of the initial reform measures during 1993. The book focuses on industry and macroeconomic policy, using these to describe reform strategy in its entirety. Perhaps most important in its connotations for other changing economies, the Chinese experience shows that gradual change of a command economy is feasible.

Barry J. Naughton, Holding China Together: Diversity and National Integration in the Post-Deng Era, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Despite repeated predictions of collapse and disintegration, China has managed to sustain national unity and gain international stature since the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. Examining the sources and dynamics of the resilience, this volume's contributors reveal how China's leaders have adapted and reinforced key economic and political institutions. They also disclose that implementation of complex policies to regulate economic and social life (employment and migration, population planning, industrial adjustment, and regional disparities) has become more effective over time within a context of growing social and economic diversity.

Peter Nolan, China and the Global Economy: National Champions, Industrial Policy and the Big Business Revolution, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
As one of just four world experts invited by the Chinese Government to consult on their application to joint the World Trade Organization [Peter Nolan] has worked closely with the heads of Chinese industry and with many foreign multinationals operating in China. China and the Global Economy is an executive summary of the opportunities for business in one of the largest markets in the world, by one passionate about its possibilities for the future.

Jean C. Oi, Property Rights and Economic Reform in China, Stanford University Press, 1999.
From the first page: It is widely believed that a market economy requires property rights that are defined with sufficient clarity and enforced with sufficient predictability to encourage individuals and firms to expend effort, plan, invest, and bear risks. The real disagreements are about specifics. What institutional arrangements are capable of ensuring the requisite clarity and predictability, and how do we create them?

Adam Segal, Digital Dragon: High-Technology Enterprises in China, Cornell University Press, 2002.
During the economic reforms of the last twenty years, China adopted a wide array of policies designed to raise its technological capability and foster industrial growth. Based on interviews with entrepreneurs and local government officials, as well as numerous published primary sources, Digital Dragon is the first detailed look at a major Chinese institutional experiment and at high-tech endeavors in China.

Scott D. Seligman, Chinese Business Etiquette: A Guide to Protocol, Manners, and Culture in the People's Republic of China, Warner Books, 1999.
From the first page: Though keenly aware of their need to learn from the West in technological areas in which their country lags behind the rest of the world, the Chinese people have never felt the need for instruction from outsiders in the areas of decorum and protocol.

Oded Shenkar, The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and its Impact on the Global Economy, Balance of Power and Your Job, Wharton School Publishing, 2004.
From the back cover: Shenkar shows why China’s accelerating growth differs radically from predecessors such as Japan, India, and Mexico -- and how it will lead to a radical restructuring of the global business system. Discover why the U.S. is most vulnerable to China’s ascent... and how China’s growth impacts every global business and consumer. Above all, Shenkar shows what you must do to survive and prosper in “the Chinese Century.”

Russell Smyth, China's Business Reforms; Institutional Challenges in a Globalized Economy Routledge Curzon, 2004.
This book explores new changes to China’s enterprises in terms of management, social welfare and human resource. These changes have come about as a result of an opening of foreign policy in trade and globalization which has led to a challenge of traditional state owned enterprises and a call for broad and sweeping reform.

Vaclav Smil, China's Environmental Crisis: An Inquiry into the Limits of National Development, M.E. Sharpe,1997.
From the back cover: Anyone concerned with the future of China, or of Planet Earth, MUST read this book… This virtual encyclopedia of China’s troubled ecology might offer more information than the ‘general reader’ cares to know; but there is everything that specialists in many fields—population, agriculture, forestry, water, energy—need to know. – Douglas P. Murray, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations

Edward S. Steinfeld, Forging Reform in China: The Fate of State-Owned Industry, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
“... Edward Steinfeld, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Business, offers compelling evidence that 'autonomy extended in the absence of functioning governance and hard budgets is a recipe for disaster ... he examines the cases of three large steel companies that epitomize the almighty mess created after managers were given rights without responsibilities.” – Wall Street Journal

Joe Studwell, The China Dream: The Quest for the Last Great Untapped Market in the World, Grove Press, 2003.
As a writer on foreign investment in China for the Economist Intelligence Unit and founder and editor in chief of the China Economic Quarterly, Studwell has numerous stories to tell about American and European businesses in China and especially about how they overspent in pursuit of the "dream" of making it big in China. This book is not a comprehensive account of international business ventures in China, but it does reveal significant negative aspects of China trade that Western businesses consistently fail to remember.

Yan Sun, Corruption And Market In Contemporary China, Cornell University Press, 2004.
Is corruption an inevitable part of the transition to a free-market economy? Yan Sun here examines the ways in which market reforms in the People’s Republic of China have shaped corruption since 1978 and how corruption has in turn shaped those reforms. She suggests that recent corruption is largely a byproduct of post-Mao reforms, spurred by the economic incentives and structural opportunities in the emerging marketplace.

Willem Van Kemenade , China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.: The Dynamics of a New Empire, Vintage Books, 1998.
In an era in which communist regimes are crumbling worldwide, China not only survives but prospers, contradicting the West's maxim that open markets inevitably lead to open societies. Van Kemenade, a Dutch journalist specializing in Asian affairs, presents a well-documented account of the economic powerhouse forming around the combined might of the Chinese mainland (including Macao and Hong Kong) and Taiwan.

Carl E. Walter, Fraser J. T. Howie, Privatizing China, John Wiley & Sons, 2003.
This text presents an account of the evolution of equity markets in an economy without a history or tradition of private property. Examines the evolution of China's exchanges, the corporatization process, and issuance procedures.

Hui Wang, Theodore Huters (Editor), China's New Order, Harvard University Press, 2003.
Wang Hui argues that the features of contemporary China are elements of the new global order as a whole in which considerations of economic growth and development have trumped every other concern, particularly those of democracy and social justice. At its heart this book represents an impassioned plea for economic and social justice and an indictment of the corruption caused by the explosion of "market extremism."

The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, World Bank, 1993.
Written for the non-specialist, this World Bank Policy Research Report…discusses in detail the means by which these high-performing Asian economies realized their staggering success between 1965 and 1990. Examining how these countries stabilized their economies with sound development programs that led to fast growth, the book also shows how they shared the new prosperity by making income distribution more equitable.

Dali L. Yang, Remaking the Chinese Leviathan: Market Transition Stanford University Press, 2004.
In this provocative, important study, Dali Yang examines a wide range of governance reforms in the People's Republic of China, including administrative rationalization, divestiture of businesses operated by the military, and the building of anticorruption mechanisms, to analyze how China's leaders have reformed existing institutions and constructed new ones to cope with unruly markets, curb corrupt practices, and bring about a regulated economic order.

Photos in this article are contributed by Mercy Corps.

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