Rapid rise thanks to balanced structure

Economic freedom and political centralization have enabled China to weather the storms it has encountered over the past 30-plus years

The mere mention of China can arouse controversy. Many comments have been made about its rapid economic and social transformation over the past three and half decades.

But for Fang Ning, a political scientist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese experience is the balanced structure of "economic freedom plus political centralization".