Wang Huiyao, Big Order, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing Ltd, November 2014

China has driven global growth for years. However, opinions are widely divided as to whether such trend can be maintained in future.

How to allocate the new dividends brought by reforms? How to hedge existing wealth against the inflow of hot money? How long can the traditional industries survive and what will happen to the emerging industries? These are all doubts about China’s economy, and they can be summarized into one question: Given the current gradual reforms, where is China’s economy heading?

This is not a new question. Dozens of books have been published on this topic in recent years, written by both Chinese and foreign authors. There are lots of debates on this topic, and it’s difficult to get a consensus. In such a case, the viewpoints of top experts offer a sold reference point.

The Center for China & Globalization, an independent think-tank based in Beijing, invited some experts to comment on various aspects of the development of China’s economy, and compiled them into a book titled Big Order.

Contributors to this book include Justin Yifu Lin, former chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank, Yu Keping, deputy director of Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Zheng Yongnian, professor and director of East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore and others. It was published by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing Ltd in November.

In the book, contributors all agree that China has made great progresses through reforms. Yu says that Chinese society has undergone profound changes and formed three subsystems: a political society represented by the Party and the officials, an economic society based on business organizations and a civil society formed by civil and social organizations.

They also believe that reforms continue in spite of the problems. Zheng holds that the biggest risk in China’s reforms is no reform. Many risks ahead of China, shadow banks, local debts, and the real estate bubble, are all the outcomes of a lack of reforms in related areas.

Lin further argues that China not only needs to continue the reforms, but has to carry out them from the roots. The reforms in economic fields should be market-oriented, so as to eliminate negative factors in economic development and create a fairer environment.

Reforms are a hard process with turns and twists in all the countries. Although the blurb says that this book talks about "elites’ prediction on the future of China’s economic development," contributors of this book do not lay out a clear blueprint of China’s economy in the future but just offer assessments and suggestions based on existing problems and present-day situation.

Given that China’s reforms are still in progress, perhaps it is too early to make a conclusion. At least, according to these experts, reforms are bringing Chinese economy toward a better tomorrow. That’s enough.