The Rise of China: How Economic Reform is Creating a New Superpower.

• Author: Hausman, Jonathan

In The Rise of China: How Economic Reform is Creating a New Superpower, William Overholt presents a compelling yet controversial analysis of China's program of reform. In contrast to familiar Western conceptions of China as ideologically driven and therefore incorrigible, Overholt portrays the country as a nation of forward-looking pragmatists who have learned the benefits of the so-called Asian Model of Development (AMOD) from their capitalist neighbors and adopted it for the benefit of the Chinese people. Based on this premise, Overholt challenges what he sees as the double standard the United States imposes on China by linking most-favored-nation (MFN) status with China's record on human rights. Moreover, he argues that China is becoming the preeminent economic and military power in Asia and warns that by not understanding the political realities of China, the United States runs the risk not only of dashing the hopes of a generation of reformers and millions of Chinese but also of undermining key American foreign policy objectives.

Though the book lacks some overall cohesion, the arguments are impeccably logical and well-researched, providing specialists and generalists alike with valuable insights into the complex issues surrounding reform in China. Some, however, will regard it with suspicion. Despite Overholt's credentials as a human rights advocate, one is hard-pressed to find comforting normative judgements. Like that of the AMOD he espouses, Overholt's approach is neither right nor left, it simply works. Indeed, he is credited by many of his colleagues with predicting many trends in China's economic boom, including the increasing rate of financial and trade liberalization.

One of the book's main conclusions is that China demonstrates that the AMOD can work in a continent-sized country. The AMOD is distinguished by authoritarian political control coupled with an economic growth program featuring high exports, undervalued currency, pirated intellectual property and import controls. Mainly imported from South Korea, this method has become the modus operandi of Deng Xiaoping's leadership. And it has succeeded. Over the last decade China has achieved annual GDP growth of 12 percent, based in part on its complex, yet effective, trading relationship with Taiwan and Hong Kong. Also, contrary to the Western perception of the Chinese leadership as reactionary, it has, in fact, shown remarkable facility with sophisticated monetary and...