The impact of Western economics on China's reforms from the late 1970s to the present: an overview
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(Published version)
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2017
Authors
Zhu, Y.
Webber, M.
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Warner, M.
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Book chapter
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Source details - Title: The diffusion of Western economic ideas in East Asia, 2017 / Warner, M. (ed./s), Ch.2, pp.348-359
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Over the last 40 years, China has embarked an unprecedented economic reform journey, which is characterised as a departure from traditional communist thought and ideology towards a hybrid philosophical and economic thought that combines multiple sources and influences predominately from the West. This chapter identifies the different stages of economic reform in China from the late 1970s to nowadays, and then analyses the impact of the Western economic theoretical ideas on the formation of the government’s economic reform policy and agenda and on the debates among different economists’ groups within China about the development of a ‘Socialist Market Economy with Chinese Characteristics’. The general observation is that China is not blindly following the West either economically (to a fully market-oriented economy) or politically (to multi-party democracy and freedom of speech, press and association). What China is seeking to develop could be very different from the existing Western market economies and democracy, as well as from the ‘Dependency Approach’ on the economic front and the former Nationalist/Socialist authoritarianism on the political front. The dilemma for the Chinese government and its people is to develop something unique that combines elements from different economic schools in order to lead the ‘Dragon Boat’ towards the realization of ‘China’s Dream’. The Dream and the elements needed to reach it need further illustration and clarification by both the regime and people in China during their new ‘Long March’ journey.
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Copyright 2017 selection and editorial matter, Malcolm Warner; individual chapters, the contributors
Access Condition Notes: Accepted manuscript available after 1 July 2018