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Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China . By Andrew Wedeman . Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press , 2012. xiii, 257 pp. $70.00 (cloth); $26.95 (paper).
Book Reviews--China
In his book Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China, Andrew Wedeman takes on the conventional wisdom that corruption necessarily stands in the way of development, brings the economy to a standstill, and depletes a nation's resources. He does not dispute these possibilities that many researchers have shown to come to pass; instead he argues that growing corruption can go hand in hand with economic growth. Corrupt leaders can be party to economic development or even initiators of such reforms. He uses the cases of Equatorial Guinea, Zaire, Sierra Leone, and Haiti to demonstrate the former; and those of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea to illustrate the latter. But as the book title suggests, China is the focus. He accepts that growth has occurred in the Chinese economy, and he traces the growth of different forms of corruption as the reform deepens and economic structural changes are being introduced. He shows how corruption took off in the 1980s and plateaued in the...