ECONOMICS AND TRADE IN THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA: 1990-PRESENT
In mid-1989, the popular uprising in Beijing and the government's crushing of that uprising before the television cameras of the world led the government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) to suspend some of its economic readjustments, and to slow down the pace of economic reform. By and large, however, the government of the PRC wanted to continue its economic interaction with the west, and, as the events of the summer of 1989 are pushed out of the public mind in the west by even more dramatic occurrences, such as the Gulf War of 1991 and the lengthening economic recession in the United States in early-1992, western commercial interests appear to have, for the most part, overcome the fears induced by the suppression of the uprising, and are once again desirous of doing business with China (De Voe, 1991, pp. 51-521).
The State of Economic Reform in China
When Chairman Mao died, and the last of the "Red Guard" influence was purged from the Chinese political environment, a government with more pragmatic economic views gained power. In 1978, this new government initiated a series of economic changes in the PRC, which were referred to as readjustments. These economic readjustments, which were continually expanded through early-1988, brought about, and continue to cause the occurrence of significant changes in the structure and the management of the Chinese domestic economy (Anderson, 1990, p. 17). Some of these changes, however, have proved to be unpopular with large segments of the Chinese population, and others have led to demands for greater political freedom. As a consequence, Hu Yaobang, architect of Chinese economic reform, was forced to step aside, some of the reforms, such as price freedom, were suspended, and the general pace of reform was slowed to a crawl (Blejer & Gregory, 1990, pp. 32-35). Nevertheless, significant changes in the economic envi...