CHINA - OPPORTUNITIES OF AND CONSTRAINTS ON THE NEW GLOBAL PLAYER

In transforming its centrally planned economy, China did not experience a J-type transformation curve like that seen in Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s, when Poland, Hungary and the then still united Czech and Slovak Republics lost roughly 20 percent of their GDP. In contrast, China has enjoyed high average annual GDP growth rates of nearly ten percent for the last 25 years. China now represents the world's third largest economy, accounting for 5 percent of world GDP in 2005. For many economists, this success story is a puzzle.