Preface
Getting It and Betting It
China is easily the least understood of the world’s major economies. Given the mystery that perpetually enshrouded the China of older times to the world outside, this is hardly a new phenomenon. But it is one whose implications grow increasingly consequential with each day that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) rises in importance as a modern economic superpower.
Not “getting” China did not matter much for the people beyond its borders during the nearly two millennia in which trade with the lands of the Celestial Empire was conducted by caravans lumbering along the trails of the Silk Road; or when newly industrialized foreign powers could unilaterally dictate terms of commerce with the weakened Chinese states of the late Qing dynasty and warlord-dominated Republican era. After a fiercely independent Communist-led “New China” of the current PRC arose in 1949, its governing ideology pushed the country to recuse itself from international commerce until market-oriented reforms began three decades later.
Since China’s pivotal reopening to the outside in 1979, both it and the world beyond have been dramatically changing. China has gone from avoiding foreign trade to becoming the epicenter of a worldwide, integrated manufacturing system. Along the way, it has emerged as a leader in key global industries such as mobile telecommunications, automobiles, and alternative energy. China’s demand today for and supply of commodities and natural resources moves ...
