The "turning point" of the Chinese economy to which the editors (professors of economics at The Australian National U.) refer in the title of this book is the point at which surplus labor from rural agricultural sectors ceases to be available, forcing real wage increases and real exchange rate appreciation, thus generating structural shifts towards more capital-intensive and technologically sophisticated industrial structure and the expense of labor intensive manufacturing and agriculture. They present 17 papers analyzing the domestic and international economic ramifications of this structural change. Specific topics include constraints and policy options for economic growth, China's role in the international currency system, the financing of Chinese bank restructuring, labor scarcity and trade expansion, the impact of the gust-worker system on poverty in urban China, demographic change and the labor supply constraint, changing patterns in China's agricultural trade after accession to the World Trade Organization, changing demand for resources, the coal industry and the environment, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation 2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
