The attainment of self-reliance (zi li geng sheng) is an important goal for China. However, approaches to achieving it have altered greatly since the People’s Republic was established in 1949. Following the split between China and the Soviet Union in 1960, Mao Zedong claimed that China could...

Starting from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, this article provides background on China’s science and technology (S&T) system and the perceived growing urgency of reforming it in order to support continuing economic growth in China. The need for reform became...

This article concentrates on the global location of production of television receivers as a case study. The aim is to see if this accords with Vernon’s international product cycle theory or whether some modifications of the theory are required. The historical evolution of the global television...

This article provides a general coverage of political decisions in China to undertake, continue and extend its economic reforms and its goal of opening up to the outside world. It also considers the consequences of Chinese policies. The period leading up to the decision in 1978 to begin the...

After economic globalisation is defined, the factors that have favoured it in recent times are outlined and the process is placed in a historical context. Measures of the recent expansion in economic globalisation are given, such as trends in the proportion of global GDP traded internationally,...

This article adopts the point of view that China’s development policies can only be appreciated if they are considered by applying perspectives from institutional economics. This requires attention to be given to the historical, political and cultural context in which its economic development...

China began its economic reforms in 1979 and Vietnam followed in 1986. Since then both countries have experienced rapid economic growth, falling poverty rates and significant rises in per capita income. At the same time, substantial restructuring of their economies has occurred, a feature of...

As markets become globalized, food safety policy and international trade policy are increasingly intertwined. Globalization also means that food safety incidents are widely reported internationally. One result is that food safety incidents can negatively impact products where no food safety...

This study develops an import demand model to explore the role of income in explaining the trade performance of low, middle and high-income countries with a special emphasis on Brazil, Russia, India and China – the BRIC economies. The study estimates the impact of the growth in per capita...

As outlined, recurring concerns have surfaced since the 1700s that economic growth may prove to be unsustainable. These concerns have been expressed again and have intensified in recent decades but their foundation differs from that of Malthus. The rapid economic growth of China and India have...