Rural development: learning from china C.2

China is one of the few developing countries which has managed to achieve an impressive macroeconomic performance while simultaneously reducing inequality and raising the living standard of the masses in the countryside. This book is a critical examination of the Chinese rural development strategy and those potentially applicable lessons which could be learnt by other developing countries.
In the first part of the book Sartaj Aziz, in a simple readable style, seeks to codify the five main features of the Chinese development experience. He draws extensively on the considerable amount of literature on China and on personal experience acquired from his visits to the country.
In the second part Aziz attempts the difficult task of discussing the relevance of the Chinese experience to other developing countries. His intimate under standing of the problems of rural development makes him properly cautious of a mechanical application; instead, he constantly draws attention to the historical, cultural and political uniqueness of the Chinese. Transferability is discussed at the appropriate level of generality; he never loses sight of the holistic nature of the problem, i.e. of the need to link rural development policy to the actual political culture, cultural background and technological conditions.