With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, international attention has focused on China as the only remaining communist giant. This latest volume in the China Briefing series explores the external and internal forces now shaping the country, with essays by prominent scholars tracing political, economic, military, social, and cultural trends in the P

Reflections on China's 20th-century transformation. Contributors explore developments over the 1997-1999 period and place them in a wider historical perspective by examining: where China has travelled; what has changed and how much; the century's enduring themes; and prospects for the future. The chapters in this latest edition of China Briefing reflect broadly on China's transformation in the twentieth century. The authors not only examine developments in China over the 1997-1999 period, but also place these events in a wider historical perspective by addressing the following questions: Where has China traveled over the course of the century? To what extent has it been transformed, and how? What are the enduring themes or points of continuity, even during a century of great change and transformation? And what are China's prospects for the future?

Designed with the foreign investor in mind, this guide presents region and city-specific intelligence available through few other English sources. Its pages overview the region from a business standpoint, examine the economy of the region's provinces and prominent cities in depth, and introduce the basics of establishing a business in the region. With detailed economic indicators and primary research largely from Chinese government and news sources, this guide is an accessible and engaging compilation of the practical information you need for doing business in the region. This is part of a five book business guide series: the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing and Northeast China, South China and the Greater Pearl River Delta, Central China and West China.​

This work provides a retrospective analysis of important events in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in the mid-1990s and a prospective look at some of the issues that will shape these areas as they each move toward decisive turning points in their distinct yet intertwined histories.

The rise of China is no doubt one of the most important events in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Mainstream economics, especially the institutional theory of economic development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions, is highly inadequate in explaining China's rise. This book argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully explain China's growth miracle and why the determined rise of China is unstoppable despite its current 'backward' financial system and political institutions. Conversely, China's spectacular and rapid transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the fundamental shortcomings of the institutional theory and mainstream 'blackboard' economic models, and provides more-accurate reevaluations of historical episodes such as Africa's enduring poverty trap despite radical political and economic reforms, Latin America's lost decades and frequent debt crises, 19th century Europe's great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial Revolution itself.

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and 2003 challenged the global public health community to confront a novel epidemic that spread rapidly from its origins in southern China until it had reached more than 25 other countries within a matter of months. In addition to the number of patients infected with the SARS virus, the disease had profound economic and political repercussions in many of the affected regions. Recent reports of isolated new SARS cases and a fear that the disease could reemerge and spread have put public health officials on high alert for any indications of possible new outbreaks. This report examines the response to SARS by public health systems in individual countries, the biology of the SARS coronavirus and related coronaviruses in animals, the economic and political fallout of the SARS epidemic, quarantine law and other public health measures that apply to combating infectious diseases, and the role of international organizations and scientific cooperation in halting the spread of SARS. The report provides an illuminating survey of findings from the epidemic, along with an assessment of what might be needed in order to contain any future outbreaks of SARS or other emerging infections.