A Chinese Renaissance: Three Decades of Inexorable Economic Progress

As a political and economic entity, the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter China) is regarded as the oldest country in the world. Since the period of the Qin Dynasty (221–204 BC) and the First Emperor, popularly known as Qin Shi Huangdi, China has been a united and prosperous empire. History credits Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi for initiating a sophisticated government structure that outlasted him for two millennia. For the major part of this period, China was a prosperous and well-managed empire. It was economically well-off, had robust domestic and international trade and was highly advanced in knowledge and technology. The Great Wall of China, legendarily 2,200 years old and 4,300-miles long, not only made a confident physical statement but also symbolized China’s belief in itself as an advanced and refined civilization, eager to make an unambiguous distinction between itself and the “barbarians” beyond the border (Lovell, 2006). By the tenth century it had a professional bureaucracy, which administered cities and provinces with impressive proficiency. Its centralized political system was supported by intensive and well-organized agriculture, which brought prosperity to the society (Maddison, 1998). However, China lacked the entrepreneurial prowess and military muscle that the European countries and Japan succeeded in cultivating. A time came when its economic affluence went into a sharp decline and it was reduced to dismal poverty. In 1978, the economy began to make its now-celebrated U-turn