The goal of the Chinese government is to make China an efficient, modern economy by the end of this century; however, a serious attempt at fundamental change was not begun until the strategic shift in economic policy following the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC (Chinese Communist Party) Central...

According to the author, in the late 1970s, Chinese industry was on the verge of collapse. Its high but erratic level of growth since 1949 had been achieved by using ever-increasing amounts of labour and capital. By 1978, the Chinese Communist Party leadership understood the economic problems...