Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 1, 2022

Why Was China’s Economy Able to Grow?

(Abstract)

Lu Feng

The upsurge in China’s economic growth in the first decade or so of the 21st century is an epochal event in world history. However, the reasons for this high growth have so far not been fully discussed. Studies have shown that the main driver of China’s long-term economic growth has been the cumulative development of the system of useful knowledge and social capacity embedded in the industrial system, with the infrastructure the PRC possesses as a big country. This cumulative process has been uninterrupted since 1949, and the high growth rate at the beginning of the 21st century is largely due to the favorable conditions that have allowed the energy contained in the Chinese industrial system and the Chinese people to burst forth. The economic mechanism inherent in this energy can be explained by incremental rewards, and the social conditions that allow this to be fully exploited are the widespread participation of the people brought about by reform and opening up. Therefore, the answer to the question of whether China’s economy can continue to grow at a relatively high speed is a definite yes, for sure. The “golden age” of China’s economic growth is still within reach.