The Economic Challenges for the New Chinese Leadership

This paper will first review the early concerns about China's entry to the WTO. Then we will evaluate the preliminary impact of the WTO membership on the Chinese economy, which turned out to be better than expected. We also discuss the current international debate on the Chinese currency renminbi revaluation and suggest that a gradual improvement of the current Chinese rigid exchange rate system will be inevitable. * Paper prepared for the Workshop on China under New Leadership which was held on 30 September 2003 and organized by the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. I would like to thank Dr Y C Wong to invite me to present this paper in the Workshop and Professor Barton Starr and other workshop participants for their useful comments on an early draft of this paper. + Associate Professor in Economics, Dept of Economics, Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Fax: + (852) 2891 7940; Tel (852) 2616 7202; Email: [email protected]. Internet: http://www.Ln.edu.hk/econ/staff/yuema