This book summarizes and compares the key ideas from the Chinese and Peruvian cases across various important topics to study the middle-income trap, such as the main driving forces of a potential trap in each case; the common challenges and the main differences in the economic transitions; the different issues faced as a result of the opening-up of China and Peru; the differences and coincidences between their respective regional development processes and the key role of human capital in avoiding the middle-income trap at regional level; the importance of infrastructure investments; the role of innovation for China’s future growth versus the limitations that informality places on the capacity of formal firms to innovate in Peru, among other issues. On the whole, this academic effort by Chinese and Peruvian scholars will contribute to mutual understanding and to enlarging cooperation from both sides.

Professor ZHANG Yuyan is Director of Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Member of CASS, Chief Expert of National Institute for Global Strategy, CASS, Professor of University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Member of the International Economics and Finance Advisory Group of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, General coordinator of the International Finance and Economic task force of the Ministry of Finance of China, Expert of Advisory Committee for Economic & Trade Policy of the Ministry of Commerce of China, President of China Society of World Economy and President of China Society of Emerging Economies. His main research interests focus on institutional economics and international political economy. He authored Economic Development and the Choice of Institutions (1992), International Economic Politics(2008), The Sources of American Conduct(2015) and The Path of China’s Peaceful Development (2017), etc.

Doctor Rosario SANTA GADEA is Director of the Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Universidad del Pacífico, Peru. She holds a Doctor´s degree in International Economics from Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France. She has been Fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs of Harvard University and Visiting Researcher at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. Dr. Santa Gadea has served as Advisor to ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Economics as well as to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Peru, National Coordinator for Peru at the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America, Executive Secretary of the Peruvian Center for International Studies, Coordinator of the Institute for European-Latin American Relations (Madrid), Official of the General Secretariat of the Andean Community, International Consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank, among other positions. Her research includes books, articles, chapters and working papers published in Latin America, Europe, the United States, and China.