In 1978, China launched economic reforms that have resulted in one of history's most dramatic national transformations. The reforms removed bureaucratic obstacles to economic growth and tapped China's immense reserves of labor and entrepreneurial talent to unleash unparalleled economic growth in the country. In the four decades since, China has become the world's second-largest economy after the United States, and a leading force in international trade and investment.
As the contributors to this volume show, China also faces daunting challenges in sustaining growth, continuing its economic ransformation, addressing the adverse consequences of economic success, and dealing with mounting suspicion from the United States and other trade and investment partners. China also confronts risks stemming from the project to expand its influence across the globe through infrastructure investments and other projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, China's current leader, Xi Jinping, appears determined to make his own lasting mark on the country and on China's use of its economic clout to shape the world around it.

This volume raises new and very important themes in the study of China's economy. The contributors and editors are an all-star lineup of scholars who provide a long-term perspective on the reforms that explain how China got to where it is economically and shed light on the country's current strengths and weaknesses. There is a dearth of good writing that covers the entire arc of China's economic reform over the past 40 years, and this volume is an antidote. It will serve as a standard reference for policymakers, scholars, and students."- Margaret Pearson, Harrison Distinguished Professor, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland

Jacques deLisle is Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law, professor of political science, and deputy director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.Avery Goldstein is David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations, director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, and associate director of the Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics at the University of Pennsylvania.