State begins dismantling the people’s commune system

The Standing Committee formally approved special economic zones in Guangdong and Fujian, giving legal standing to the opening experiment. The zones reversed the colonial-era role of treaty-port...

The Sixth Plenum’s historical resolution formally criticized the Cultural Revolution and affirmed modernization as the central task. Economic changes were framed as a way to rebuild national...

By 1981 household responsibility arrangements spread from village experiments in Anhui and Sichuan. Families received use rights and production obligations, met state quotas, then retained or sold...

The central rural policy document recognized household responsibility contracts as a valid form of collective production. Rather than a single national switch, adoption spread through local trial...

The new Constitution declared a planned economy while allowing individual and private economic activity within defined limits. This constitutional settlement captured the early reform compromise:...

Deng visited Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Xiamen, signaling political backing for the SEZ experiments. The visits helped make the coast a showcase for reform and foreign investment; the image of successful...

The State Council designated 14 coastal port cities for broader foreign trade and investment. The policy extended preferential opening beyond the original SEZs and deepened links to East Asian...

Following the 1984 decision, state firms gained greater discretion over output, investment, hiring and retained profits, while remaining publicly owned. The move sought productivity and fiscal...

The decision declared that a planned commodity economy was compatible with socialism and made urban reform a central priority. It gave state enterprises more autonomy, expanded markets and reframed...

Rural industry grew rapidly under local collective and township arrangements, absorbing labor and using household savings and local state support. TVEs offered an alternative to migration into...