The remarkable rise of China over the past three decades has been unprecedented in both its scale and speed. Analysts around the world have attempted to understand the causes of this unique event and to predict how long it will last.

China's rise has also raised two important questions. The first concerns the stability and the sustainability of China's growth, which has been accompanied by growing internal and external imbalances, rising inequality at home, environmental degradation and an increased risk of catastrophic climate change, and has happened in spite of the continuing, if...