This book presents an up-to-date and clear guide to the often bewildering changes which have taken place in China in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

It makes use of the enormous body of empirical and theoretical research that is being carried out by economists, political scientists and sociologists on contemporary China, but is itself written in non-technical and accessible language. It does not assume any previous knowledge of China with explanations of Chinese terms provided throughout the book.