Exploring the Sustainability of the Chinese Growth Model in Light of Some Key Structural Characteristics

China's rapid economic growth and success in poverty reduction over the last three decades have inspired world-wide admiration. This paper analyzes structural developments in the Chinese economy and distributional consequences thereof with the help of simple identities and behavioral specifications. Possible sources of these distributional developments are then analyzed using a tradetheoretic approach. Macro and micro aspects of China's investment- and export-led growth strategy are discussed along with the problems that the focused pursuit of such a strategy has raised. We conclude that China's growth model, although spectacularly successful in many ways, may have now outlived its utility both on economic and socio-political grounds. The present global economic crisis serves to bolster this conclusion.