China's transition to a market economy has propelled its remarkable economic growth since the late 1970s. In this book, Nicholas R. Lardy, one of the world's foremost experts on the Chinese economy, traces the increasing role of market forces and refutes the widely advanced argument that Chinese economic progress rests on the government's control of the economy's "commanding heights." In another challenge to conventional wisdom, Lardy finds little evidence that the decade of the leadership of former President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao (2003–13) dramatically increased the role and importance of state-owned firms, as many people argue. This book offers powerfully persuasive evidence that the major sources of China's growth in the future will be similarly market rather than state-driven, with private firms providing the major source of economic growth, the sole source of job creation, and the major contributor to China's still growing role as a global trader. Lardy does, however, call on China to deregulate and increase competition in those portions of the economy where state firms remain protected, especially in energy and finance.

Xi Jinping has transformed China at home and abroad with a speed and aggression that few foresaw when he came to power in 2012. Finally, he is meeting resistance, both at home among disgruntled officials and disillusioned technocrats, and abroad from an emerging coalition of Western nations that seem determined to resist China’s geopolitical and high-tech expansion. With the United States and China at loggerheads, Richard McGregor outlines how the world came to be split in two.

Examines how the private sector in China manages to grow without secure property rights.

Learn valuable lessons from the newly successful private equity players in China and explore the challenges and opportunities offered in Chinese markets The first book to deal with private equity finance in China, Private Equity in China: Challenges and Opportunities provides much-needed guidance on an investment concept that has so far proved elusive in Asia. Focusing on the opportunities that the Chinese finance market offers to private equity firms, the book shows how these firms can strategically position themselves in order to maximize success in this new marketplace. Private Equity in China includes in-depth case studies illustrating both successful and failed ventures by private equity firms operating in China, outlining the challenges faced by private equity firms in setting up new funds. It contains a collection of valuable experience and insights about acquiring companies and turning them around essential for any firm currently operating in, or considering entering, the Chinese market. Discusses the challenges faced by private equity firms in China including setting up the initial fund, fund raising, deal sourcing, deal execution, and monitoring and exit strategies Provides key insights drawn from keen observations and knowledge of the more mature private equity market in Western countries, analyzing the way forward for the Chinese private equity industry Discusses the role of renminbi-denominated funds in the development of the private equity industry in China Breaking new ground in exploring and explaining the private equity market in China, the book offers incredible new insight into how equity companies can thrive in the Chinese marketplace.

Entrepreneurship in China looks at the dynamic and changing nature of entrepreneurship, and the need for entrepreneurs to refine, adapt and evolve their approaches within an uncertain and volatile environment, in this instance, the distinctive and particular context of China for entrepreneurs. This book will benefit those looking to understand Chinese entrepreneurship and for guidance to practitioners with interests in working with private Chinese businesses.

Chinese entrepreneurs have founded more than thirty million private businesses since Beijing instituted economic reforms in the late 1970s. Most of these private ventures, however, have been denied access to official sources of credit. State banks continue to serve state-owned enterprises, yet most private financing remains illegal. How have Chinese entrepreneurs managed to fund their operations? In defiance of the national banking laws, small business owners have created a dizzying variety of informal financing mechanisms, including rotating credit associations and private banks disguised as other types of organizations. Back-Alley Banking includes lively biographical sketches of individual entrepreneurs; telling quotations from official documents, policy statements, and newspaper accounts; and interviews with a wide variety of women and men who give vivid narratives of their daily struggles, accomplishments, and hopes for future prosperity. Kellee S. Tsai's book draws upon her unparalleled fieldwork in China's world of shadow finance to challenge conventional ideas about the political economy of development. Business owners in China, she shows, have mobilized local social and political resources in innovative ways despite the absence of state-directed credit or a well-defined system of private property rights. Entrepreneurs and local officials have been able to draw on the uncertainty of formal political and economic institutions to enhance local prosperity.

Based on Party and state documents, Chinese newspaper reports and surveys, the Chinese and Western scholarly literature and the author's own fieldwork, this important study examines the private sector as a case study of the mechanics of reform in China, emphasizing the relationships among local officials, private businesses, and central policy. The book traces the growth of private business in China since 1978 and focuses on the interaction between private sector policy and other reforms and examines how this has affected China's political economy.