Inflation and regional disparities sharpen distributional conflict

The State Council added numerous cities and counties to the coastal open economic belt, broadening access to investment and export activity. This extended the coastal-first growth strategy and...

The Law on Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People defined state enterprises as independent economic entities with operational autonomy and responsibility for profits and losses. It marked...

The National People’s Congress approved Hainan Province and its designation as the largest SEZ. The decision accelerated land development and investment in a peripheral island with a distinct...

Plans to liberalize prices were announced amid inflation and fears of a rapid rise in the cost of living. Households rushed to buy durable goods, exposing the gap between reform rhetoric and...

The Third Plenum of the 13th Central Committee adopted a program of economic readjustment and rectification after overheating and inflation. Credit and investment were tightened, price controls partly...

The 1989 protest movement and its violent suppression marked a major rupture in reform politics. The crisis revealed that market change had not resolved demands for accountability, fairness or...

Military force ended the Beijing protest movement and triggered international condemnation and sanctions. Economic reform continued under stronger political constraints. A decolonial account must hold...

The Fifth Plenum of the 13th Central Committee emphasized political stability and continued the rectification course. Reform was not wholly abandoned: authorities retained market experiments while...

The central government announced the development and opening of Pudong, extending the coastal strategy to Shanghai’s eastern bank. The project sought to restore Shanghai as a global financial and...

The exchange’s establishment created a new mechanism for securities trading and state-enterprise finance. It signaled that market institutions could be incorporated into a party-led economy. Early...