Books by Peter Nolan

Melbourne, Australia, 1996'For you, Trang. The Prime Minister's Office.' Trang took the phone, wondering which of her friends was playing a practical joke. Then a voice, strangely familiar. 'I've called to offer the best gig going in Australia right now,' John Howard said. 'I'd like you to serve on the Council for the Centenary of Federation.' Trang was momentarily speechless. She quickly rallied, accepting the appointment and thanking the PM. Her schedule was overcrowded as always, but to decline such an opportunity to serve was unthinkable. Yet she struggled to come to grips with the PM's invitation. The holder of Australia's highest political office had called personally to recruit her to a position of great honour. Why her? Yes, she was already a high achiever in both academia and public office. Her successes had raised her profile, especially as a representative of multicultural interests. But this appointment was a much broader recognition. It told her that she had made the transition from successful immigrant to eminent Australian.

Re-balancing China addresses three key sets of issues in Chinas political economy. Part One of the text provides an analysis of the profound impact of the global financial crisis on Chinas economy an economy deeply integrated in the global economic system through trade and foreign investment. It also examines the positive outcomes of the massive rescue package that constituted Chinas policy response to the crisis. The rescue package stimulated Chinese growth and helped to stabilize the global economy as a whole. Part Two focuses on the challenge of globalization for Chinas industrial policy. Since the 1980s, China has pursued an industrial policy aimed at nurturing a substantial group of globally competitive firms, most of which have become superficially successful. However, China still has a negligible number of large firms that are competitive in global markets. Chinas experience presents a fundamental challenge to traditional concepts of industrial policy and development. Finally, Part Three examines Chinas international relations, the focal point of which is its relationship with the United States. The US has made it clear that its principal challenge in international relations is the rise of China and has announced a tilt towards the Pacific in its military strategy. As a result, the core of this interaction spans the East and South China Seas and the countries that surround this area.

This remarkable, expansive text, explores the impact and ramifications this domineering economic phenomenon has had over our personal and social liberties. In this epoch of capitalist globalisation, Peter Nolan argues that capitalist freedom is a two-edged sword, and its contradictions have intensified, threatening the natural environment, and intensifying global inequality.

China is becoming ever more deeply integrated with global political economy. This book addresses critical issues in this process. The author examines the paradox of the global market economy that is presided over by 70 million members of the Chinese Communist Party, and analyses Chinas policy of 'innovation in an open environment', attempting to nurture a group of globally competitive, large-scale companies. In addition, the book analyses the challenges that Chinas political economy faces in the twenty-first century, identifying the way in which China is attempting to resolve these contradictions by building on its rich historical experience to regulate market forces. It further examines the wider context of global capitalism within which Chinese development is taking place. Capitalism is the key propulsive force in technical progress. The recent period has seen an unprecedented liberation of this force. However, this force is a two-edged sword. The unprecedented advances have come hand-in-hand with unprecedented challenges that threaten the very survival of the human species. Finally, it studies the relationship between the United States and China. Through cooperative behaviour, the US and China can help lead the world towards a sustainable future for mankind, with a global market economy regulated in the common interest of all human beings. In the absence of such a mechanism, the prospects for humanity are bleak.

This text is an attempt to analyze systematically the contrast in the results of post-Stalinist reform in China and Russia. It argues that there emerged a "transition orthodoxy" about how to reform the communist systems of political economy.

These essays both enhance an understanding of China's immense success in meeting these challenges in the past and provide an indication of the challenges that still lie ahead. China's system reforms have been described as 'groping for stones to cross the river'. The journey across the river is far from over, and the other bank is only dimly visible.