China's Future in the Knowledge Economy: Engaging the New World

In pursuing its economic development, China now has to deal with quite a new world, that of the emerging knowledge economy. This world is very different from that in which the West achieved advanced economy status, or even that in which the Asian Tigers shot to prominence. The driving forces of new technologies, global competition and market pressures are being felt in every corner of China.

This book is about China’s future in this emerging knowledge economy, and about the strategies that it should pursue. A new world requires new understanding, both of global trends and of their impact on Chinese realities. Nor is it sufficient to learn from the developed countries, or to apply models successful elsewhere in East Asia. Each country must develop its own distinctive response to the knowledge economy, to meet its own needs.

The book brings together many voices – distinguished Chinese academics and scholars, Chinese practitioners and policy makers, leading experts from the OECD and the World Bank, and academics from Australia and several other countries. Each of these provides a distinctive contribution to understanding this central issue facing China and its people.

See Table of Contents, Preface and List of Contributors .

See World Bank interview with Peter Sheehan and download the first two chapters of the book for free at a feature of the publication on the Development Gateway website (World Bank).

Edited by Bhajan Grewal, Lan Xue, Peter Sheehan and Fiona Sun
Jointly published by Centre for Strategic Economic Studies and Tsinghua University Press
December 2002, 416 pp.  $A44.95  ISBN 1-86272-618-3 (English version)
ISBN 7 30201 503 1 (Chinese version, forthcoming)
To order this publication download and print the order form and post or fax with your payment to CSES.

Book reviews
“This visionary book comes at a particularly critical time in China’s history as it seeks to pursue more market-oriented reforms while integrating itself more fully with the global economy. …[it] takes a snapshot of a diverse landscape of viewpoints, drawing on contributions from some of the key policy makers from China as well as in the Asian region. ... Overall this book is an enlightening read for policymakers directly working with knowledge economy issues… [it] incorporates a broad range of perspectives and the editors must be commended for weaving these together into a coherent and informative whole. The book is also a very interesting model, as similar volumes could be produced for other developing countries seeking to navigate the global knowledge economy.”
Journal of Asian Economics 15(2):439-440 2004,
by Ronald U. Mendoza (Policy Analyst, UNDP, Office of Development Studies, New York)

"This volume presents an excellent overview of the key challenges for China and a range of valuable scholarly analyses of economic trends and policies. ... The editors have put together a range of papers that will enlighten readers in China ... as well as overseas. Several excellent papers should help Chinese readers understand the meaning and context of global trends related to the emergence and policy implications of the 'knowledge economy'. They may also serve as interesting summaries of recent research for overseas readers ..."
Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, 18(1) May 2004
by Erik Baark (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)