China on the Brink
Book

China on the Brink

The Myths and Realities of the World's Largest Market

Callum Henderson
McGraw-Hill, 1999
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Editorial Rating

5

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Engaging

Recommendation

International finance expert Callum Henderson provides a detailed, well-researched and highly readable account of China’s current economic situation. The book focuses specifically on how economic, environmental and social problems threaten China’s historic economic reform programs. What happens in China affects investment, markets and economic policies around the world – issues Henderson investigates thoroughly. getAbstract recommends this book to all business people with an interest in China’s economic climate, and if you conduct business internationally, this means you!

Summary

Where China Stands

While the western press gives much attention to political dissidence in China, the Chinese people are far more focused on their economic well-being than any doctrine. The large protests in November 1998 stemmed not from ideology, but from anger over economic losses.

China’s government promotes what it calls a socialist market economy, a compromise between the egalitarianism of Communism and a free-market economy. This market form, however, has its economic victims. China’s most poverty-stricken people live in the countryside. But their numbers are rising, a trend affecting urban Chinese at an increasing rate. As this transition occurs, "a situation of economic distress could once again become political." The government now is focusing on stability as its central economic and financial theme - a cautious approach to reform, to avoid "the type of chaos that China has so often suffered from, in both the political and economic spheres."

In the 1990s, China’s economy grew sharply, led initially by agricultural businesses, which were first freed from Communist restrictions by the deregulation of 1979. Township and village enterprises (TVEs) followed...

About the Author

Callum Henderson is an Emerging Market Currency Strategist at a global investment bank in London. He previously worked for the independent research house Standard and Poor’s MMS in Hong Kong and New York. He is a respected source for business publications including The Asian Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, and The Financial Times. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC-ABN, and other television networks. His previous book, Asia Falling, analyzed the Asian currency crisis.

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