Damien Ma

William Adams

Nearly everything you know about China is wrong! Yes, within a decade, China will have the world’s largest economy. But that is the least important thing to know about China. In this enlightening book, two of the world’s leading China experts turn the conventional wisdom on its head, showing why China’s economic growth will constrain rather than empower it. Pioneering political analyst Damien Ma and global economist Bill Adams reveal why, having 35 years of ferocious economic growth, China’s future will be shaped by the same fundamental reality that has shaped it for millennia: scarcity. Ma and Adams drill deep into Chinese society, illuminating all the scarcities that will limit its power and progress. Beyond scarcities of natural resources and public goods, they illuminate China’s persistent poverties of individual freedoms, cultural appeal, and ideological legitimacy — and the corrosive loss of values and beliefs amongst a growing middle class shackled by a parochial and inflexible political system. Everyone knows “the 21st century is China’s to lose” — but, as with so many things that “everyone knows,” that’s just wrong. Ma and Adams get beyond cheerleading and fearmongering to tell the complex truth about China today. This is a truth you need to hear — whether you’re an investor, business decision-maker, policymaker, or citizen.

How Scarcity Will Define China's Ascent in the Next Decade

In Line Behind a Billion People

The authors set out each of the scarcities that could limit China's power and stall its progress. Beyond scarcities of natural resources and public goods, they explore China's persistent poverties of individual freedoms, institutions, and ideological appeal--and the corrosive loss of values among a growing middle class shackled by a parochial and inflexible political system.

This book is a collection of essays from MacroPolo, the think tank of the Paulson Institute in Chicago. The picture of China that emerges in this volume is one built from the ground up, across economics, politics, and technology. In addition, because China’s rise has important global dimensions, a US-China section composed of two essays is included, which combine both a macro perspective and a view of the bilateral relationship through the history of a significant multinational firm. Finally, this volume will include an original introduction and conclusion by Damien Ma, editor and co-founder of MacroPolo. The essays are analytically driven and provide novel perspectives, context, granular data, and policy conclusions that get lost in the daily churn of news cycles. None of the essays in this volume focuses on national security or geopolitics. Rather, the volume grapples squarely with how China’s domestic economic, political, and technological developments have transformed not only itself but also the world at large.

Damien Ma

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