Where Is China Going?

It is now 30 years since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping unleashed the transition to capitalism in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the CCP held in December 1978 marked the start of the process, and the end of the “Maoist ” path of development in China.

China’s “market reforms” began in agriculture with the process of de-collectivisation. The communes were dismantled and the peasants exposed to market forces under the “household responsibility system”, this, despite the fact that 30% of the village communes had proved that cooperation was a viable way of life. Industrial enterprises in the communes were turned into “township and village enterprises” (TVEs), which multiplied exponentially, from employing 17 million workers in 1978 to 85 million in 2006 (149 million if one includes TVEs other than in industry alone).