Hung - The China boom: why China will not rule the world

Table of Contents ; List of Illustrations and Tables; Preface; Chronology of State Making and Capitalist Development in China, Sixteenth to Twenty-First Centuries; Introduction: Sinomania and Capitalism; Part I. Origins; 1. A Market Without Capitalism, 1650-1850; 2. Primitive Accumulation, 1850-1980; 3. The Capitalist Boom, 1980-2008; Part II. Global Effects, Coming Demise; 4. Rise of the Rest; 5. A Post-American World?; 6. Global Crisis; Conclusion: After the Boom; Notes; References; Index;Many thought Chinas rise would fundamentally remake the global order. Yet, much like other developing nations, the Chinese state now finds itself entrenched in a status quo characterized by free trade and American domination. Through a cutting-edge historical, sociological, and political analysis, Ho-fung Hung exposes the competing interests and economic realities that temper the dream of Chinese supremacy-forces that are stymieing growth throughout the global South. Hung focuses on four common misconceptions about Chinas boom: that China could undermine orthodoxy by offering an alternative model of growth; that China is radically altering power relations between the East and the West; that China is capable of diminishing the global power of the United States; and that the Chinese economy would restore the worlds wealth after the 2008 financial crisis. His work reveals how much China depends on the existing order and how the interests of the Chinese elites maintain these ties. Through its perpetuation of the dollar standard and its addiction to U.S. Treasury bonds, China remains bound to the terms of its own prosperity, and its economic practices of exploiting debt bubbles are destined to fail. Dispelling many of the worlds fantasies and fears, Hung warns of a postmiracle China that will grow increasingly assertive in attitude while remaining constrained in capability.