"A stunning inside look at how and why the foundations upon which China has built the world's second largest economy have started to crumble. Over the course of a decade reporting on the ground in China as a financial journalist, Dinny McMahon gradually concluded that the widely held belief in China's inevitable economic ascent is dangerously wrong. In this unprecedented deep dive, McMahon shows how, lurking behind the illusion of prosperity, China's economic growth has been built on a staggering mountain of debt. While stories of newly built but empty cities, white-elephant state projects, and a byzantine shadow-banking system have become a fixture in the press, McMahon goes beyond the headlines to explain how such waste has been allowed to flourish, and why one of the most powerful governments in the world has been at a loss to stop it. Through the stories of ordinary Chinese citizens, McMahon tries to make sense of the unique--and often bizarre--mechanics of the Chinese economy, including the state's addiction to appropriating land from poor farmers, why a Chinese entrepreneur decided it was cheaper to move his yarn factory to South Carolina, why ambitious Chinese mayors build ghost cities, and how the Chinese bureaucracy stared down Beijing's attempts to break up the state's pointless monopoly on the distribution of table salt. Debt, entrenched vested interests, a frenzy of speculation, and an aging population are all pushing China toward an economic reckoning. [This book] unravels an incredibly complex and opaque economy, one whose fortunes--for better or worse--will shape the globe like never before."--Jacket