Chapter 1: China’s Economic Performance, Prospects, and Challenges

For over 40 years (1978–2019), China succeeded in sustaining rapid economic growth and achieved large-scale reduction in poverty — before pausing due to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Over those 40 years, economic output increased 40-fold. China’s performance transformed both the country and the world’s commercial landscape, as it shifted and lengthened international supply chains and became a powerful new source of international demand. Domestically, China’s focus on improving living standards for the impoverished section of its population made it possible for the United Nations to meet its multi-decade worldwide poverty reduction targets. China’s modernization was and is a phenomenon achieved by unconventional methods, posing international and domestic challenges across the board…