This book is an exceptional piece of scholarship, with very interesting conclusions. The writing is not always very good with lots of repetition, a poor (and long) introductory summary, and insufficient highlighting of some of the really important data sets (p.116, p.122, p.254): the casual reader might want to focus on those data sets and the accompanying gloss.
At the risk of some oversimplification, Huang finds that the 80's in China were characterized by vigorous growth through private enterprise. In the 90's China became a state run, top down economy, relying on foreign direct investment for the continued growth which was accomplished. Economists have come to emphasize the importance of the security of private property in promoting growth, and while nominally this did not exist in the 80's in law, it mostly did exist in fact. The 90's were a different story, with land grabs and other kinds of expropriations, as well as limits on competition with state controlled enterprises, and a stranglehold on the availability of credit.
One might think that the source of growth was not too important so long as growth was obtained, but this is not true. The "Gini" coefficient which was developed by international economists shows that Chinese society suffered from more inequality in the 90's. Education and health deteriorated, with the number of functionally illiterate actually increasing. Corruption became rampant even as civil service salaries greatly increased and there was less freedom at the village level. Moreover, because urban areas grew at the expense of rural areas, more Chinese workers had to migrate, and living in a squalid worker dormitory, separated from family, leads to a reduction in quality of life not picked up in GDP measurements (Huang does not explicitly make that point, but it is obvious).
Huang sees signs that in the 21st century, China's new leaders have been trying to move the country back in the direction of the eighties. As a stock market investor, I can point out the following: a number of Chinese companies have listed on the NASDAQ while not being allowed to list on the Shanghai stock exchange where share valuations are higher, so they are not able to raise as much capital. At the same time, however, some of these companies have received state assistance of various kinds without state control.
I believe Huang was objective in his research, although he does gloss over the evils that can result from unrestrained private enterprise - think of the industrial revolution in Europe.
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Top reviews from other countries
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Difficult but important reading about china economy and history
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thought provoking but need to approached with caution
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