This is an especially timely volume given the enshrinement of the “idea of scientific development” into the Chinese Communist Party's constitution at the Seventeenth Party Congress in October 2007. Although the first two and a half decades of reform produced impressive rates of growth in gross domestic product, it also created new sources of inequalities while exacerbating existing ones. The turn to scientific development thus represents the party-state's commitment to prioritize the quality rather than the speed of development. By “quality,” President Hu Jintao's ruling coalition means more equitable and sustainable development. This shift in official discourse to a more balanced, multidimensional notion of development, however, leaves unanswered the critical issue of how the public goods and social services associated with “scientific development” for a “harmonious society” will be financed.
Vivienne Shue and Christine Wong have put together a collection of empirically grounded essays showing that the quest for economic...
