Since Deng Xiaoping initiated the process of 'reform and opening up' in the late 1970s, China has emerged as the second largest and one of the most dynamic economies in the world. China's domestic economic reforms and integration into the global economy raise countless questions about the nature of China's economic growth and development process in the past, present, and future: Has China's transition from central planning to an increasingly market-based economy been successful? What kind of capitalist system is China becoming, if becoming capitalist at all? What are the major challenges facing the current generation of leaders under President Xi Jinping, and what are the prospects for inclusive economic growth in the future? How has China been transformed by, and in turn transformed, the global economy and how are other nations responding to these twin transformations?

This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills to address these questions and more through a series of lectures and tutorials that begin with China under Mao, before exploring the major features of the reform period, from gradual experimentalism and unbalanced investment- and export-led growth to Xi Jinping's 'New Era' of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. The course will then focus on the key challenges facing China today, including income inequality, the need for low-carbon “green” growth, and an ageing population, while also exploring China’s quest to become a global technology superpower, the deterioration in US-China relations through the lens of geoeconomics, and the Australia-China economic relationship.