Kjeld Erik Brodsgaard is Professor and Director at the Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School. He has held visiting research appointments in China, Singapore, and the US and is a member of the Advisory Board of the EU-China Academic Network (ECAN). His most recent publications in English include The Chinese Communist Party in Reform (2006) and Bringing the Party Back In: How China is Governed (2004). He is currently engaged in a major research project on cadre reform, party building and public management in China.

• 1. Introduction 2. 'A Place that God Forgot' 3. Establishing a New Province 4. The Economy of Hainan 5. Foreign Trade and Investment 6. Yangpu Economic Development Zone 7. 'Small Government' in Hainan 8. 'Big Society' in Hainan 9. Hainan and Regional Cooperation 10. Hainan and the South China Sea 11. Conclusion

'The work is particularly valuable to ‘China-watchers’ as there is not a great deal available in English on this province of the PRC. The book is quite short, 144 detailed pages [excluding tables etc.,] set out in 11 chapters but the author writes very lucidly and indeed tells the tale very well. It can be thus recommended as a useful source for graduate students and researchers interested in China. It is, however, at the cover-price essentially at best a library-purchase.' - Malcolm Warner, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Asia Pacific Business Review, 2010