Breaking Through: The Birth of China's Opening-up Policy

Westerners witnessing China's astonishing national transformation over the past three decades are familiar with the general outlines of the story of its economic miracle. But few people - even within China - know the story behind the story. Who were the people who actually made this happen? What were the inside machinations that to China's shift from a planned to a market-oriented economy? By what political and policy processes were the special economic zones, which paved the way to China's historic rise in international trade and economic growth, approved and allowed to flourish? Li Lanqing, an important, senior Chinese official at the forefront of the economic reforms revealed this story for the first time to Chinese readers in 2008, in his acclaimed book Break Through. This English edition now offers English readers a rare, personal account of one of the greatest economic stories of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents:
Note About Terminology Introduction by the Translators Author's Preface to the English Edition A Dialogue with the Author 1: The Open Door Becomes a Key State Policy Embargo and Isolation in the Early Years of New China Self-Imposed Seclusion under Ultra-Leftist Ideology 'Closed-Doorism' Sets the Economy at an Impasse People's Choice: Deng's Third Comeback to Power The Debate over 'Emancipating the Mind' and the 'the Criterion for Truth' Restoring Order and Setting Things Right Sounding Out the Outside World An Historic Turning Point for China 2: The Birth of Special Economic Zones Shekou, the Opening Salvo Guangdong and Fujian Get the Green Light to Set the Pace Setting Up a 'Frontline General Staff' From Special Export Zones to Special Economic Zones What Is Special about Special Economic Zones? Fording the River by Groping for Stones The Policy for Special Economic Zones Is Sound Designing a Framework for Opening up Coastal Regions 3: A New Priority: Bringing in Advanced Technology and Equipment Uninterrupted Learning is the Key to Progress Braving Interference; Making Foreign Things Serve China Boosting Technology Importation Becomes a Major State Policy Opening up More Avenues for Bringing in Foreign Technology Striving for Innovation and Transcendence 4: Foreign Investment: Lessons for the Open Door Policy Joint Ventures a Pragmatic Choice The First Law on Foreign Investment is Born The First Group of Joint Ventures The First Group of Joint Ventures 5: Borrowing a Hen to Lay Eggs; Making Use of Foreign Loans The Debt-Free Era Comes to an End Borrowing Loans from Japan, a New Experiment Restoring China's Seat in the World Bank Diversifying our Sources of Foreign Loans 6: Foreign Trade Reform: A Rough Beginning Breaking the Monopoly over Foreign Trade Reform Brings About New Vitality GATT: From Rejection to Application for Re-entry 7: The Open Door Policy: Learning along the Way Learning to Swim by Swimming Accelerating Training for the Opening-Up Effort Restoring the Practice of Sending Students Abroad to Study Borrowing Foreign Brains and Bringing in Expertise Learning Modern Management Is a Revolution Historical Affirms Deng's Vision: Establish Market Economy by Opening Up Afterword

About the Author :
Li Lanqing is a senior Chinese official who presided over some of the key economic policy decisions and reforms of China's reform era. He has held many important official positions within the Chinese government, including Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, and Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade.

Review :
In an often-dry academic literature on China's transition from Maoist economic autarchy to global trading partner, this book is a pleasant surprise. As a well-positioned "insider" in Beijing's CCP hierarchy, Li Lanqing offers valuable insights into the initial phases of China's "opening up policy" from the early 1970s to 1984... Li (former vice premier) enlivens his topical account with colourful and even bizarre anecdotes that capture wider issues at stake in these pivotal years... Summing up: Highly recommended.