QUALITY OVER QUANTITY

The author is professor of politics and director of the International Graduate Program in Politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai

Over the many years of accelerated economic growth in China, there has been a general tendency in many corners to fetishize GDP growth rates as paramount indicators of economic development. The simple logic of “bigger is better” has always been an easy sell to citizens and investors alike, and particularly in the wake of China’s joining the WTO, it has been the story above all others, arguably, that has captivated international attention, along with the persistent concern that at some point, those rates would decline and then, perhaps, all