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Integrating China into the Global Economy

Nicholas R. Lardy
Reviewed by By Lucian W. Pye
May/June 2002
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Nicholas R. Lardy
Brookings Institution Press
2002
245 pp.
0815751354
$19.95

In this new addition to the ongoing debate over the future of China's economy, Lardy sees much that is positive. He begins by proving he is no Pollyanna about China's prospects, noting Occidental Petroleum's disastrous joint venture in the 1980s. (The firm had to write off a $250 million loss after a failed attempt to develop China's biggest-ever coal mine.) Yet he quickly makes clear that this book is no string of anecdotes but a disciplined study that focuses singularly on China's accession to the World Trade Organization. Lardy reviews Beijing's early economic reforms to show how they prepared the stage for making accession possible, then examines the problems the country will be facing upon joining the WTO. Although Lardy explores all the likely scenarios for China and the WTO, he is generally optimistic that China will effectively integrate itself into the world economy.

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