This book analyzes economic strategies responsible for China's 40 years of 40-fold growth, suggesting how such strategies might be applied elsewhere. It combines a seven-chapter chronological analysis of China's growth with three additional chapters on the government's leadership role, success in poverty reduction, and China's combined international finance and trade experience. The book recaps why China's success challenges the United States and the field of development economics. One of its emphases, the 1980s, reports how generous rural price and land-tenure reforms caused a rural income boom that threatened urban subsidized livelihoods and underpinned consequent violence. It describes how China will likely face a similar challenge moving forward, during the planned merger of rural and urban workforces.

The book includes an analysis of the US-China trade war and China's economic prospects in the wake of COVID-19. It is a clear and timely account for anyone interested in understanding the institutions and policies responsible for China's successful development and its likely continuation.