China's Reformed Economy

It is easy to identify China’s main economic achievements in connection with the country’s transition to a new economic system: a GDP growth rate perhaps as high as 9 to 10 percent per year since around 1980; an eightfold increase in per capita income; and a fall from 50 to 10 percent of the share of the population living in “absolute poverty”. This last category is then defined as individuals living on less than one dollar a day. However, it is also important to be clear about the resource costs connected with China’s rapid growth path as well as lingering, and in some fields increasing, social problems.