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World Bank, while developing a network of exchange across the Eurasian continent to benefit their businesses and their partners. Called the One Belt, One Road initiative, this trade network has re- sulted in billions of dollars of loans, investments, and construction: Optimists view it as a great initiative to connect the majority of the world’s population, but cynics view it as an attempt of the Chinese to purchase good favor and dominate business. Other criticisms, such as China’s notoriously poor record of human rights or its on- going takeover of the South China Sea, keep the Communist Party authorities from universal goodwill among the global community. China’s rise topower reflects its rapideconomicgrowth through the twenty-first century.Enjoying scorching-hot GDP growth, including growth at or above the breakneck threshold of 10 percent per year, China is in the midst of the greatest economic boom in its history, its economy having grown almost tenfold between 1978 and 2005. Thismeteoric rise in incomes and productivity has led to remarkable achievements, including the alleviation of poverty for hundreds of millions of people, and places Chinese businesses squarely in the center of global competition, research, and profits. The common perception of Chinese industry is that of smoke- belching factories; although there are countless such factories throughout China, the economy is headed toward a transition to replace industry with services, much as the U.S. economy is doing. Nine of the 20 largest businesses in the world are Chinese. Glisten- ing ultra-modern cities have sprouted throughout China, and the world’s largest middle class has provided a huge market for goods like smartphones.Growth has not been uniform, however, and rural Chinamore resembles a developing nation than it does an advanced economy.What’s more, rapid industrialization has had tremendous negative environmental consequences, some approaching disaster status. As China has grown, outsiders have constantly questioned whether the Communist Party will lose its grip on the country, just as communists have done inEasternEurope andRussia.Democracy in China has been a dream of Western diplomats and politicians for decades but remains just a dream for the foreseeable future. The Communist Party itself has made it clear that it will not share authority with other political organizations and that it will not relax

13 Introduction