China is on track to regain its former place in the world. But its economic growth, hailed as capitalism鈥檚 reward, would not have been achieved without the centralised socialist state control that directed the modern swathe of industrialisation, Elizabeth Economy reminds us in The River Runs Black (Cornell University Press, $17.95).
Economy is particularly good at showing links with other economies playing catch-up. The black river of her title is the Huai, just north of the Yangzte. It runs through rich agricultural land; the small factories that line its banks discharge waste that, constrained by disastrous reservoirs and dams, it cannot dilute. When dammed water was released in 1994, the river turned black and undrinkable, killing fish and fields. Economy ends her striking book with a set of scenarios for China鈥檚 future.
