This is a study of China from the 1800s to the present day. It focuses on China's problems of development - the decay and collapse of the Chinese Empire, its failure to recover in the first half of the twentieth century and its rapid emergence in world affairs since the Communist Party revolution of 1949. It takes the story up to recent, tragic events in Tiananmen Square. Dr Gray addresses a series of crucial questions: why did Imperial China collapse? Why was she so slow to recover? Did "economic imperialism" help or hinder that recovery? What enabled the Chinese Communist Party to gain power? Has China created a specifically Chinese model of development, and if so, is this model relevant to the future of socialism, and to the problems of less developed countries? Jack Gray's accessible analysis will prove indispensable to all students of Chinese and Asian history.