The book seems to be written by a journalist that seems to stick with high-level opinions of the subject matter, without researching much to inform those opinions. Maybe it was written in haste, who knows?
But throughout the book, the author persistently makes the point that in these countries, workers can churn out the same work for much lower wages as their "counterparts" in the U.S. This assumption simply has not been true from what I've seen. While many of the folks from those countries are doing some great work, around 2001, one of the startups I was working for was interested in outsourcing some of its networking programming to what was supposed to be the most talented tech center in China. Our execs visited, our programmers met their finest, and the groups at these centers simply did not have skills (although that is changing, I've seen some pretty excellent coding out of Asia). Another tech company that I worked with recently hired workers in India for their call center. The costs turn out to be the same as the centers in the U.S., only the accents and phony lines about the weather in your hometown turn out to be difficult to understand and a turnoff for customers. I am sure that's not always true for every effort to outsource, but often it is. It seems that some niche work can be very cost effective to outsource, but not all.
Anyways, the book has some great news about the increase in quality of living for so many that endured hardship under Mao and the challenges that India is overcoming in making progress. The author makes great comparisons about tradition and issues in India impeding progress, and the Communist parties' ability to make changes unimpeded. But then it seems that she leaves out examples of what happens to Chinese peasants, both old and young, when the government simply decides to build something as massive as the Three Gorges dam and immediately displace these people.
Fairly interesting book about global trade.
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