China's new economic policy made headlines in December 1984 when a leading article in the People's Daily expressed the previously unthinkable opinion that the teachings of Marx and Engels could not be expected to solve all of China's present problems. What have been the main characteristics of...

Since Mao's death China has greatly strengthened its contacts with Western industrialized states. This year the People's Republic has concluded trade agreements with Japan and the European Community, amongst others. All these activities suggest that China's economic policy is set on a new course.

At the end of the 1970s there occurred a re-orientation of development policy in the People's Republic of China. Changes were introduced in the sectoral development priorities, the guiding principles of the State's incomes and foreign trade policies and in the organization of agricultural...