This thesis was dedicated to explain mainland China’s fast economic growth and high
inequality from the approach of economic transition and to answer the question why
economic transitions contrast in mainland China and Taiwan. Combined with both
qualitative and quantitative strategies, and based on secondary data as well as official
statistics, the thesis chose comparative study as research design. After two
comparative studies, this thesis found that mainland China is also a model of
agricultural-development-led industrialization as Taiwan, which largely contributed to
the fast economic growth; and yet uneven economic transition among provinces in
mainland China resulted in serious intra-rural and national inequality.