One of the most insightful experts on China and it’s economic structure is Professor Yasheng Huang.  Professor Huang teaches international management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and he is a ferocious analyst of the Chinese economy.  His most recent book, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008) is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how China became the emergent power of the BRICSAM.

Since I’m in the midst of it, I can not provide a final evaluation, but let me take a first cut at this study. There’s a hint early on by Yasheng Huang of the analysis to follow.  Yasheng writes: “…- the Chinese economy is so complicated that what appears to be straightforward and obvious on the surface is not at all so once we dig into the details.”

“Is there any reason to think that the general economic success of China has been a result of institutional forces dramatically different from those that have favored growth elsewhere?”

There are two explanations for China’s emergence.  The first – now traditional view suggests, according to Yasheng Continue reading →