Landscapes and watersheds? China and the current economic context

This paper aims to review the international economic and political context within which China is developing its technology management strategy and its economy. The context represents a time of fundamentally significant change in and between the countries of East and West.

The paper is a conceptual one, which considers the changes in the prevailing politico‐economic consensus including changes in the West, between East and West and within China.

In the context of the current political and economic landscape, the paper suggests there are perhaps three watersheds emerging which will define the present era and the foreseeable future and within which China's technology management strategy and economic development needs to be considered.

Given all the recent developments in international markets and the historic scale of the intervention of governments in the West, the paper is a timely and original analysis of the ending of the neo‐liberal consensus which has prevailed for the last 30 years and the significance of current developments, not least for China.