We all know that China is becoming an economic powerhouse‚ India is close on China's heels‚ Korea is a leader of high tech innovations‚ and Japan has some of the world's most dominant and influential companies. But what we don't know is HOW-since the end of World War II-Asia has transformed itself into the rising force of the global economy. Who were the people behind this miraculous transformation? In THE MIRACLE‚ TIME magazine and former Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Schuman offers an insightful and engaging historical narrative that presents the dramatic history through the stories of the participants themselves.
Spanning nine countries‚ filled with heroic tales of bold decisions and self-sacrifice‚ and probing vast historical undercurrents‚ THE MIRACLE takes the reader inside private boardroom meetings‚ stock exchanges‚ heated business negotiations‚ factory floors‚ and presidential cabinet sessions for a behind-the-scenes look at the events that shaped Asia's economic ascent-and will shape the world in the century to come. With this insider's view‚ Schuman uncovers how outsourcing to Asia began‚ how Asia's most famous companies such as Sony and Samsung became global corporations‚ and reveals the technological changes and global economic shifts that made Asia's boom possible. He also focuses on the compelling human and cultural side to this economic story‚ and readers will meet the political strongmen‚ the entrepreneurs‚ and the ordinary workers who made the Miracle a reality.
This group is an amazingly diverse one and includes dictators and democrats‚ generals and technocrats‚ economists and engineers‚ even a medical doctor. Some of the people featured and interviewed in the book will likely be well known to readers (like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or Kim Dae Jung of South Korea); others may be introduced to most readers for the first time (like India's prime minister Manmohan Singh‚ Liu Chuanzhi‚ the risk-taking founder of PC maker Lenovo‚ or Li Ka-Shing‚ the richest-and most secretive-tycoon of Hong Kong). All of them‚ however‚ shared a dream: to uplift Asia to its proper place of influence in the world and eradicate the poverty around them.
