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Joanna Chiu

The Uniqueness
of China's Development Model 
by Yip Kwok-wah
World Scientific
Joanna Chiu
In his youth, Yip Kwok-wah was a prominent pro-communist leader in Hong Kong, yet by the time he took up his post as special advisor to the chief executive of the HKSAR from 1997 to 2012, he had apparently eased up on his "redness". But in his new book, patriotism prevents him from discussing the Chinese development model from an unbiased perspective.
"In order to truly understand economic phenomena in China, it is necessary to examine them without bias and accept that every country has its own conditions and different standards," Yip writes.
It is a good premise, and timely as the perceived economic threat from China is playing a prominent role in the US presidential election.
The world is also waiting to see if China will maintain its extraordinary economic growth of the past two decades (10 per cent GDP growth each year).
Yip argues that "the success of the Chinese economic development model … is not due solely to the endeavours of the Communist Party … but is the result of development over 2,000 years".
He credits factors such as the mainland's long history of centralised authoritarian rule and lack of Western-style democracy as reasons for its economic prosperity.
Unfortunately, Yip fails to demonstrate his credibility as an impartial researcher. He would have been better off framing his book as a work of opinion.
Yip's standpoint is clear from the very first sentence of his book, in which he states that China is "returning to its historical position as the world's leading economic power, a position it held for a thousand years".
The only consistent criticism he expresses about the Chinese development model is that it is not environmentally friendly.
Yip most resembles a government mouthpiece in his praise of improvements to migrant workers' rights, intellectual freedom and the hukou or household registration system.
Those are all areas where the international community has accused the mainland of committing human rights abuses, but Yip provides little evidence to back up his optimistic reports on its progress. Instead, he relies on information from state-controlled media such as Xinhua and the  China Daily.
In the current political climate in Hong Kong, where many citizens are furious about issues such as national education, the influx of mainland tourists and parallel trading, Yip's book will probably not appeal to a broad audience.
With economic and political uncertainty ahead for the city as it grapples with its complex relationship with the mainland, a book that provides information about the Chinese development model could be useful for Hongkongers - but readers would be better off looking for a more reliable guide than Yip.


Book: The Uniqueness of China's Development Model by Yip Kwok-wah

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In his youth, Yip Kwok-wah was a prominent pro-communist leader in Hong Kong, yet by the time he took up his post as special advisor to the chief executive of the HKSAR from 1997 to 2012, he had apparently eased up on his "redness". But in his new book, patriotism prevents him from discussing the Chinese development model from an unbiased perspective.
