Invisible China

"If rural Chinese do not learn essential cognitive skills, the authors predict mass unemployment, social unrest, and perhaps a crash that would 'lead to huge economic shocks around the world.' Chinas rulers should order crates of de-worming pillsand copies of this book." * Economist * "While the world focuses on Chinas rich, the country is facing economic and political disaster if it doesnt invest heavily in educating its rural population, the economists Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell argue in this recent book. Both authors are part of the successful US-China Rural Education Action Program. As they note, Taiwan and South Korea escaped the middle-income trap by ensuring that large numbers of students finished high school, enabling the move to a higher-end economy. In China, by contrast, the high school attainment rate is just 30 percent." * Foreign Policy * "For a startling depiction of Chinese inequality today, Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hells Invisible China is not to be missed." -- Niall Ferguson * Times Literary Supplement * "The biggest obstacle to Chinas development is that rural childrentwo-thirds of the totaldo terribly in school, argues this stunningly researched book. Many are malnourished, lack reading glasses or suffer from energy-sapping intestinal worms. If these basic problems are not fixed, say the authors, China will struggle to reach its goal of broad prosperity." * Economist, Best Books of 2021 * Rozelle has spent the last 30 years researching Chinas labor force and its rural-urban divide. * The Guardian * "Invisible China provides a stunning overview of economic, health and education policies in rural China." * East West Notes * "An important and informative new book . . . suggests that China lacks the educated workforce to capitalize on its success and reach the next rung in the ladder of development. . . . Making invisible China more visible is a necessary first step to bring meaningful changes in rural China. This new book by Rozelle and Hell is an important contribution to this endeavor." * Peterson Institute for International Economics * "This book by development economist Scott Rozelle and researcher Natalie Hell highlights problems that often remain invisible in the face of Chinas rapid economic rise. Its the drama of the rural low-educated workers who were the motor driving Chinas growth since the 1980s, but are now more and more left jobless and hopeless in their home villages as low-skilled work is increasingly outsourced to other countries or is taken over by robotics. In many ways, China and the Chinese people are going forward yet the rural population is left behind, and its Chinas Achilles heel. This book focuses on this invisible side to Chinas rise and on how such a big story, with such major implications, could be so little known." * What's on Weibo * The authors are in no way hostile to China or its government system. But having spent years researching in rural China they not only feel strongly for this unseen China but want the situation to change so that China continues to prosper and thus enable the wider world to prosper. * Asia Sentinel * Rozelle and Hell would like to see China succeed, and remind us how important this is for the whole world. But they are concerned with the slow progress in reforming education. China has recently become more authoritarian, limiting cooperation with the education systems of other countries and even restricting the foreign books that children can read. Invisible China sounds a wake-up call. * The Strategist * Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hells remarkable book represents the culmination of four decades of research carried out by Rural Education Action Plans (REAP) teams in Chinas poor rural hinterlands The books contributions are insightful. * China Quarterly * "Scot

Scott Rozelle is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and holds the Helen F. Farnsworth Endowed Professorship at Stanford University. Rozelle codirects the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) and is a faculty affiliate at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Natalie Hell is a writer and researcher. As part of REAP, she has worked on Chinese education and health issues for the past seven years.

Authors Note Introduction 1. The Middle-Income Trap 2. Chinas Looming Transition 3. The Worst-Case Scenario 4. How China Got Here 5. A Shaky Foundation 6. Invisible Barriers 7. Behind Before They Start Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: The REAP Team Notes Index