Towards a Chinese ‘Socialist Market Economy’

Abstract

On 6 September 2010 President Hu Jintao led celebrations marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Shenzhen, where China’s economic transformation first began. In August 1980 Shenzhen became the first area in China to be designated an SEZ that could accept foreign investment under Deng’s reforms. The site of a former fishing village on the border with Hong Kong, the Shenzhen SEZ has since evolved into a thriving metropolis over the past three decades and is now home to the headquarters of many high-tech companies along with the Shenzhen stock exchange. Tens of billions of US dollars in investment have since flooded into Shenzhen, where thousands of factories produce goods for export around the world. Shenzhen has since become one of China’s most productive cities, rising from a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of 606 Yuan in 1979 to rank first by 2008 with 89,814 Yuan per capita (Yiming et al 2011). According to Hu, the Shenzhen SEZ had ‘created a miracle in the world’s history of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, and has contributed significantly to China’s opening up and reform’. Only weeks before Hu’s visit the State Council decreed the southern city in the province of Guangdong as ‘a national economic centre’ and ‘a city of global clout’ in cultural, economic and technological exchanges.

Reform is China’s second revolution. (Deng Xiaoping, 28 March 1985)