Traps Embraced or Escaped: Elites in the Economic Development of Modern Japan And China. The focus of this analysis of economic development in the two very different economies of China and Japan is the economic role of elites. It is elites who are crucial in the implementation of change in transport, market access, labour training and work patterns, capital availability and cultural resistance. These are seen to have responded differently in the Meiji and Qing periods 1840-1911 when both countries dealt with Western Challenge, and also in the period of many "traps" to development 1911-1945. This is shown to have influenced the decline and the re-emergence of elites, and differing patterns of elite roles in Japan's "miracle economy" and the "command and control" structure in China 1945-2005. With tables, bibliography and index.