The author of this book is my father who turns eighty this October. He has been a formidable student in his times but opted for the corporate sector rather than academia because of the higher salaries and glamour of the former and the decided lack of either in the latter. He comes from a family of academicians and his was an age of the rising individualism; it was considered to be more fashionable and meritorious to move away from inherited occupations and strike out on one's own into uncharted territories. The original manuscript that my father wrote was an enormous sheaf. It contained many details of the Chinese policies. The reading was good but the matter did not conclude anywhere; besides there were many authors who wrote copiously on China with a similar lack of conclusion. These books, including my father's original manuscript tried to explain China's growth post...