Growing out of Socialism: Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics

Abstract

After almost a decade of strong economic growth, China’s economic reform encountered its first full-blown crisis in the late 1980s. This culminated in the 1989 Students Movement, the tragic end of which further compounded and prolonged the economic crisis. The year preceding and those that followed the 1989 Tiananmen incident are often referred to as the Tiananmen interlude (1988–1992). The Chinese term for crisis literally means danger and opportunity, and this four-year period was full of danger for the reform agenda; there was a real possibility that reform might be rejected altogether.