Why China Succeeds: A Road to Prosperity

Qingjie Xia

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arXiv · 2609.05804

Why China Succeeds: A Road to Prosperity

Qingjie Xia

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Abstract

Why China Succeeds offers what no existing book does: a single, unified explanatory framework that traces China's rise from its ancient civilizational foundations to its twenty first century technological ascent. Rather than treating China's success as ideologically exceptional or historically accidental, it reveals the universal institutional logic (regulated social mobility, functional land and taxation systems, and formidable state capability) that has sustained Chinese governance across millennia and powered its modern economic miracle. The book directly challenges Western development orthodoxy by demonstrating that institutions can be built through growth, not before it. For policymakers, scholars, and development practitioners worldwide seeking transferable lessons from the world's most consequential development story, this book provides the most historically grounded, analytically rigorous, and forward-looking account available.

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Qingjie Xia. 2026-09-05. Why China Succeeds: A Road to Prosperity. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05804

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