Both China’s and Russia’s economic systems had little resemblance to the West before the 1980s. However, since that time both have tried to change their economic systems in order to save their economies from ruin. While Russia began this process too late out of stubbornly clinging to any ideology that was anti-West, China has benefited from introducing many economic reforms that are Western in nature.
Both China and Russia were communist governments with centralized bureaucracies and practices that discouraged private ownership and enterprise. The economies of both were planned or command economies. Political leaders set prices and determined production quotas while also setting consumption levels of commodities. Meeting the basic needs of the people and a well-equipped militia were the goals of such an economy. Leaders also felt the cyclical swings of inflation and recession would be ameliorated if they controlled the economy and industry. The reality, of course, is that neither country met these goals and the prolonged Cold War between Russia and the U.S. drained the Russian economy at the expense of the basic needs of the populace. Convoluted logic and corruption ruled the economy, as the world’s largest producer of grain had to import food to feed its people. Further, limited economic distribution allowed for a high level of corruption because control of the wealth of this vast nations was in the hands of the few. Other than weapons, Russia carried out little trade as national planning continued to create economic deterioration.
China is considered a Third World country, its communist government firmly entrenched in Marxist ideology. Before the 1980s, China took an isolationist approach to the economy and trade. The state also owned all the means of production in manufacturing and industry. Plants were costly, noncompetitive, and inefficient. Mao believe a totalitarian st
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