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This title was first published in 2003. This book represents one of the recent internationally coordinated initiatives to access the rich and still unfolding implications of China's participation in economic globalization in the context of the nation's accession to the World Trade Organization.

As China rises to become the world's largest economy, half a billion rural villagers are expected to become urban residents in the coming decades. The great urbanization of the world's most populated country is sure to be one of the most far-reaching social-economic events in the 21st century. This book provides a clear and comprehensive review of this unfolding event. It presents not only the evolution of public policies and institutional reforms regarding urban development over the past decades, but also an up-to-date survey and in-depth analysis of contemporary social-economic forces that define and contribute to the process of urbanization. Individuals interested in understanding China's urban development will find this book useful, informative, and fascinating.

In the last two decades of the 20th century, China stood out as the world's star performer in economic growth, thanks to the market-oriented reform that started in 1978. At the turn of the century, the Chinese economy faces a series of challenges to sustain its growth and stability. The two-decade-long rapid growth has effectively strengthened China's economic power and raised its people's standard of living. It has also transformed China from a centrally planned command economy into a “socialist market economy”, which operates increasingly in line with capitalist norms. Major structural problems, however, remain and are growing acute. Weakness in the fiscal system breeds rent seeking at the local level and causes tension in the state budget. The flawed financial institutions and the biased ownership structure continue to distort resource allocation and cause huge efficiency losses. Inter-provincial and inter-regional disparity is reaching a level that threatens national unity and social stability. As China joins the World Trade Organization and becomes more integrated into the world economy, it urgently needs to improve the domestic business environment and to beef up indigenous industries for foreign competition.This volume is a collection of papers written by scholars at the East Asian Institute to address those problems during the period 1999-2001. The authors, with their knowledge and experience in China studies, provide in-depth observations and professional analyses of some of the most important issues for the Chinese economy at the turn of the century. Some of the observations and analyses lead to enlightening policy recommendations. The solid scholarship combined with the policy orientation of these papers will appeal greatly to researchers in academia, governments and other institutions. The policy-oriented and fact-based analyses will also be of interest to practitioners in business, including business consultants.