Deng Xiaoping Essay

Since 1980 China has gone through a system of major economic changes that has strategically positioned itself as a key player in the global economy. In the years just prior to 1979, China’s economy and political spectrum was experiencing turmoil. As a country with a strong communist government the state ran nearly all of the industries within the country. They held a very inwardly focused view on development and much of their economy focused on agriculture and subsistence farming. As a result, during the 1970’s China’s economy began to stagnate. Seeing China’s economic issues mounting, the leader at the time, Deng Xiaoping, decided that China’s Maoist economy was causing economic growth within the country to plateau and that there needed to be a strategic implementation of economic reforms. At the time, China’s FDI inflows represented just .2% of their GDP as the Maoist economic policies in place made it very difficult for foreign firms to invest in businesses in the country. Trade with other nations represented just 15% of their annual GDP. Deng

Mapped out by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the years 1979-1982 were to serve as a “period of readjustment” for an overall neoliberal transition. During this stage, data began to be collected and published about trade with outside nations, capital flows, and many more economic factors which painted a picture of the economic landscape of China that was never seen before. Deng Xiaoping had very clear goals for the readjustment period and made it obvious to the public that he wanted to focus on dramatically increasing trade and exports with foreign nations, improving infrastructure within the country, improving specific commodity industries such as coal, iron, and steel, and a series of agricultural and business reforms. Each of these policies stressed strong neoliberal ideas compared to the policies that were in place before them in