In 1974 China's last Emperor, Deng Xiaoping, traveled to New York to speak at the United Nations. This was the first time such a senior Chinese leader had ever visited the United States. As the delegation prepared its trip the question was asked, "How can we pay?"A mad scramble ensued in the capital as the Emperor's men called all the banks to assemble foreign currency. After searching high and low, they were able to scrape up only $38,000. Now just 30 years later China appears to have won the global Monopoly game with foreign exchange reserves of over $2 trillion and an economy the government says will grow at 8% despite recession of the world's other economies. Everyone is looking to China.
How did China in just 30 years pick itself off the floor and become America's largest creditor, positioning itself if not to surpass the United States, then perhaps acquire major aspects of its crumbling economy? In Red Capitalism authors Carl Walter and Fraser Howie go deep into the Chinese financial machine to illuminate the social and political consequences of China's unique business model and pose the question whether it has, in fact, lived up to all the hype surrounding it and whether, after all, the 21st century really will be China's century.
Red Capitalism is indispensable reading for those who would understand the limits that China's past development decisions have imposed on its brilliant future. No one who is considering China business strategies in today's extremely challenged global economy can afford to miss this book.
Carl E. Walter