China Business ─ Transition, Development and Integration

The book provides a comprehensive view on the main transformations that are happening in China today. The balanced view has been developed by using unique primary data based on more than 200 interviews and numerous survey results, in additional to mainstream literature by academia and consultancy companies.The general view on China is often either black or white. Global markets are generally guided by euphoria or fear. Academia are optimistic or pessimistic about China's longer term growth potential. People believe or distrust Chinese data. These black and white pictures are in many cases easy to communicate (and even proofed by anecdotic evidence), but are not correct.The ambidextrous nature of China is not a trade-off, it is both: market and government, central and local government, emerging (upper) middle class and extreme price sensitivity, fall of consumption as percentage of GDP and strong increase in consumption, export as important driver behind longer term development but hardly visible as determinant of today's economic growth.The book aims to understand the often conflicting nature of China, not only from an economic point of view, but also from a social and political point of view. In this sense it tries to give the reader an eclectic picture of China — the country of contradictions.That is a difficult task because of the linkages between reforms and the fact that there are many preconceived ideas on China, its developments and choices. It is interesting to note that the further from China people are, the more negative they are on China. The book will make clear that this pessimism is overdone. Also in the longer term, the author is quite positive on China's transformations. The rise of China is here to stay and this is the major factor of change of this century.