Sustainability of the Chinese Economic Miracle and Its Implications for Chinese-American Trade Relations

Greg Chrappa

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Strobel, Frederick

Keywords

Chinese Economy, China-U.S. Trade, Chinese Economic Reform

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

The introduction to this thesis begins with an overview of the Chinese "economic miracle," and then asks the question, "Why should Americans care?" The analysis, exploration, and discussion of the three answers given to this question make up the core chapters that follow. However, it is the author's belief that in order to adequately understand China's path of ascent, one must first understand the circumstances and context out of which the "rise" arose. After attaining an adequate perspective here, one can then begin to answer the fundamental questions of why and how it happened. Because these matters concern the basic make-up of modern China, they will occupy the bulk of the second chapter. Over the course of analyzing the fall and rise of China, Deng Xiaoping is identified as the undaunted architect of the country's economic miracle. Chapters three, four, and five discuss the China-U.S. trade imbalance, China's exchange rate regime, and the current challenges facing China in sustaining its economic miracle. Wherever appropriate, the implications that any matter may have for U.S. interests and policy are drawn out and considered, forming a kind of leitmotif of the growing symbiosis between the two powers. This has been one of the two principal motivations driving the work presented in this thesis: first, communicate and explicate the historic significance of modern China for the U.S., and second, do so in a thorough and dispassionate manner, such that the widest possible audience might approach an informed understanding of China's significance. Thus equipped, the reader may not only come to appreciate the significance of China accurately, but would also have a solid basis from which to understand all of the recent media and political attention showered upon the subject.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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