ABSTRACT
It is commonplace today to view China as the emerging economic giant that will eventually challenge, and perhaps even surpass, the economic might of the world’s only recognized superpower at present – the USA. China is therefore regarded as a serious potential challenger to the current supremacy of American Empire. China has in fact undergone rapid economic growth and incredible social transformation in the last two decades, with an average annual GDP growth rate of 9 per cent (see Figure 11.1). This is especially remarkable in light of the economic decline of the
former Soviet Union and the slowdown of the world economy after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-8. How is China’s phenomenal economic growth to be explained? There are some competing explanations.
