Matching Reforms of Political and Economic Systems of China
China’s socialist economic reform began in 1978. Its history can be divided into three stages. The first one lasted from 1978 to 1992, with the introduction of a system of contract responsibility system and the use of monetary incentives. The second one was from 1992 to 2001, with the introduction of a market system, regulating the productive activity of enterprises through market information. The third stage began in 2001; including the joining of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a more general linking up with the trends of globalisation. No matter what the future outcome of this transition will be, the incoherence of the reformed economic system and the only partly reformed political system has become evident. The prospects of China’s historical transition depend on how we can guarantee first, that the economic reform will still move in a socialist direction, and second, that political reform will match economic reform.