Shanghai Pudong Miracle: A Case-Study of China’s Fast-Track Economy

About This Book

Between 1990 and today, Shanghai’s Pudong district went from a stretch of farmland and warehouses to one of the world‘s most recognizable skylines — the emblem of China’s reform and opening. Few people were better placed to explain how it happened than Zhao Qizheng, who served as head of the Pudong New Area management committee and later as China‘s Minister of the State Council Information Office.

In Shanghai Pudong Miracle, Zhao and co-author Shao Yudong lay out the policy decisions, strategic thinking, and on-the-ground execution that drove Pudong’s rise. Written expressly for an international readership, the book presents the background, policies, and outcomes of the Pudong development in clear, accessible English, illustrated with over one hundred photographs — both contemporary and archival — that document the district‘s dramatic physical transformation -2.

This second edition adds an interview with Zhao Qizheng by the Shanghai Party History Research Office, in which he discusses the “soft accomplishments” of the Pudong project — the governance experience, talent cultivation, and institutional lessons that accompanied the more visible infrastructure and economic growth -2.

For readers interested in China’s economic reform, urban development, foreign investment policy, or the political economy of fast-track modernization, this book offers a rare insider perspective that is neither academic abstraction nor official boilerplate.