Abstract The methodology of multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism (MSIASM) is applied to the analysis of the recent evolution of Chinese economy. This paper has two goals: (1) to show the MSIASM scheme is effective in handling in an integrated way different types of data, mixing extensive and intensive variables, on different levels; and (2) to provide a multi-scale integrated analysis of the trajectory of development of China. The quality of possible scenarios is checked by identifying constraints affecting their feasibility and by characterizing them in relation to different dimensions and scales of analysis. This entails 4 tasks: (i) identifying a set of benchmarks that makes it possible to compare different characteristics and features of China to other countries and to the average values calculated for the world level; (ii) explaining the differences found over the selected set of benchmarks, by looking at the characteristics of the various sub-sectors of Chinese economy; (iii) understanding existing trends and future feasible paths of China's development by studying the existence of reciprocal constraints between the whole economy and its compartments; and (iv) examining possible future scenarios of development for China.