Achieving a Balance in the New Stage of China's Economic Development

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Chinese leaders today understand that environmental protection is an important challenge, as soil erosion, desertification, deforestation, deterioration of grasslands and water shortage become serious problems. They are willing to spend resources to protect and improve the environment, and they are in a better position to do so. The people are becoming more environmentally conscious too.

Having achieved impressive growth in the past three decades, the Chinese authorities now place more emphasis on the quality of economic development. In many ways, they intend to follow the Japanese way of restructuring its economy since the 1960s. For example, the most important way to overcome the energy problem is not so much to look for more oil, but to save energy by raising the efficiency of energy consumption.

This paper intends to analyze China's economic development strategy at this stage, especially how it attempts to secure economic sustainability. The cultural and social aspects of this strategy will also be examined as its success demands a change of values.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Joseph Y.S. Cheng is Chair Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Contemporary China Research Project, City University of Hong Kong. He is the founding editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and The Journal of Comparative Asian Development. He has published widely on political development in China and Hong Kong, Chinese foreign policy and local government in southern China. He has recently edited volumes on Challenges and Policy Programmes of China’s New Leadership and The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in Its First Decade. Since 2005, he has been serving as the founding president of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong.