What Is the “China Model” of Financial Reform?

YING Zhanyu ( 应展宇)
School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics

Editorial note:Over recent years the international community has gained a new understanding of China’s reform and opening-up experience. A new concept has become popular among political figures and decision makers around the world. This concept is called the “China model.” The following essay asks and attempts to answer the question: Does China’s experience differ so significantly from other countries’ that its financial reform can also be incorporated into the so-called “China model”?

As alluded to by Allen et al. (2005), if based solely on the mainstream development literature on law, institutions, finance and economic growth, China’s three-decade financial reform is likely to be a special “counterexample” in the history of world economic development. How, has an “emerging + transitional” economy like China evolved its financial system, step by step, into its present state? Does a “China model” of financial system reform exist as distinct from...