The Economic Policy of the New Chinese Leadership in 1977 and 1978

Written in January 1978 for Communisme the bulk of this article analyses the theoretical foundations of the economic policy of the new leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, following the upheavals which marked the end of 1976. In unraveling the apologetic and mystificatory discourse of the new rulers, this text shows that the line adopted is resolutely productivist and marks a deep break with maoist politics. Following the great debate excited by the cultural revolution, we witness in China the rehabilitation of a certain “official marxism”, which has more than a little in common with the soviet ideological system.

The economic and political event of 1978, briefly analysed in the post-script, have fully confirmed the substance of the analysis in spite of considerable resistance, the present direction clearly commits China to a path of development closely related to that of state capitalism.