FAST ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH HIGH INEQUALITY: WHY IS MAINLAND CHINA DIFFERENT FROM TAIWAN, CHINA?

Abstract: This thesis was dedicated to explain mainland China’s fast economic growth and high inequality from the approach of economic transition and to answer the question why economic transitions contrast in mainland China and Taiwan. Combined with both qualitative and quantitative strategies, and based on secondary data as well as official statistics, the thesis chose comparative study as research design. After two comparative studies, this thesis found that mainland China is also a model of agricultural-development-led industrialization as Taiwan, which largely contributed to the fast economic growth; and yet uneven economic transition among provinces in mainland China resulted in serious intra-rural and national inequality.