ABSTRACT
A peculiar, perhaps even unique, feature of the rapid rise of China as an economic power is that it is taking place within the context of an already highly globalized market environment. This is in sharp contrast to the phase of rapid economic development of Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and even Japan and South Korea, that took place in an environment where global flows of capital, resources, products, and information faced much greater impediments and frictions. This opens up new options and strategies for how Chinese development can be achieved. Thus, while China’s development is in large part driven by a “capitalist transition” – and one which shares many of the forces that propelled the development of earlier economic powerhouses – the speed, the trajectory, and sometimes even the outcomes of China’s rise will be different.
