Economic Policy-Making in China

Abstract

In the five years following Mao’s death and the arrest of his principal surviving supporters who helped launch and wage the Cultural Revolution a major effort was made to reform the Chinese policy process at the higher levels, especially in the economic realm. This chapter focuses on questions regarding economic policy-making in that initial five-year period after Mao’s death. To what extent and in what direction did economic policymaking evolve from 1976 to 1981? What of the Maoist system remained by 1981? Further, what are the strengths and deficiencies of the new system? Does the policy process in the economic realm seem capable of directing the substantive economic reforms which the leaders have in mind?