Drawing on the shared human development goals of being “long-term, holistic, and multidimensional” and the universal principles of market economies in modern economics, this book systematically portrays China as a “great power” characterized by a unique point of departure, immense scale, pronounced regional disparities, complex governance hierarchies, and the world’s largest volume of goods trade. It examines the operating mechanisms and developmental trajectory of China’s socioeconomic system.

The book comprises ten chapters, addressing topics such as openness and globalization, administrative and fiscal relations between central and local governments, ownership reform, industrial policy, factor markets, financial and capital markets, economic structure and transformation, income distribution, and the cultural foundations embedded in China’s market economy. From the perspective of a major country undergoing transformation and development, it explores the economics of China’s path to modernization. By delving into the internal dynamics of a “great power,” the book uses an economic lens to trace China’s distinctive characteristics and to analyze how these features intersect and interact with the universal laws of market economies observed worldwide. This work offers an economist’s explanation for the story of China’s development, providing a systematic framework for understanding its modernization journey.