Unravelling Modern China Haico A. Ebbers Marston Book Services

This book provides a comprehensive and balanced view of the main transformations that are happening in the Chinese economy today. This view has developed from more than 200 interviews and numerous surveys (based on primary data), in addition to mainstream literature by academia and consultancy companies. The general view of China is often either black or white. Global markets are generally guided by euphoria or fear. Academia are optimistic or pessimistic about China's longer-term growth potential. People believe or distrust Chinese data. These black and white pictures are, in many cases, easy to communicate (and even proved by anecdotic evidence), but are not correct. Modern China is not the result of tradeoffs but ambiguities: market-driven AND government-driven, central government AND local government control, increasing brand loyalty AND extreme price sensitivity, fall of consumption as percentage of GDP AND strong increase in consumption, export as an important driver behind longer-term development AND yet hardly visible as a determinant of today's economic growth