Recent Articles

Read more about our latest published articles.

Review’s Archive

Corresponding Author:
Abdol B. Soofi, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Wisconsin, USA

Economic Restructuring and Socialist Construction in China: 1950-1978

Volume 74 - Issue 2, May 2021
(pp. 141-172)
JEL classification: N15, O53, P11, P21
Keywords: Economic Restructuring, the Law of Value, China’s Central Economic Planning, Economic Reforms

Abstract

This paper deals with economic policies, development, and the restructuring of China’s economy during the 1953-1978. It reviews problems of misallocation of resources in the heavy, light, and agricultural industries, which led to the adoption of the economic restructuring policy of Four Modernizations: agriculture, industry, national defense and science, and technology. However, in the early 1960s, the planners realized prioritizing investment in heavy industries, at the expense of the light industries and agriculture had created the problem of sectoral imbalances, which were caused by the deviations of prices from the values of commodities. Imbalances among the economic sectors in China in the 1960s and 1970s led to shortages of consumer goods, and surpluses of capital and intermediate goods.  Several leading Party economic theoreticians theorized that price controls, production quotas, and administrative control of enterprises broke the links between the production and circulation spheres of commodities, which caused a failure of the law of value.


 

 


Read the full article

Download the article in PDF format to read and print.


Bibliography

Arrow, K. and L. Hurwicz (1960), Decentralization and Computation in Resource-Allocation, in: R. Pfouts (Ed.), “Essays in Economics and Econometrics in Honour of Harold Hotelling”, University of North Carolina Press: Chappell Hill.

Bowie, R. and J. Fairbank (1962), General Introduction, in: R. Bowie, J. Fairbank (Eds), “Communist China 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis”, Harvard University Press: Cambridge.

Brandt, L. and T. Rawski (Eds) (2008), China’s Great Economic Transformation, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Brandt, L., T. Rawski and J. Sutton (2008), China’s Industrial Development, in: L. Brandt. T. Rawski (Eds), “China’s Great Economic Transformation”, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Clarke, D., P. Murrell and S. Whiting (2008), The role of Law in China’s Economic Development, in: L. Brandt. T. Rawski (Eds), “China’s Great Economic Transformation”, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Field, R. (1983), “Slow Growth of Labor Productivity in Chinese Industry:1952-1981”, China Quarterly, 96 (December), 641-664.

Fung, K-K. (1982), Editor’s Introduction, in: K-K. Fung (Ed.), “Current Economic Problems in China”, Westview Press: Boulder.

Hinton, W. (2008), Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village, Monthly Review Press: New York.

Hsueh, M-C., S. Hsing and L. Tse-li (1960), The Socialist Transformation of the National Economy in China, Foreign Language Press: Peking.

Ishikawa, S. (1983), “China’s Economic Growth since 1949 – An Assessment”, China Quarterly, 94(June), 242-281.

Kogiku, K.C. (1978), “Japan’s Industrial Structure Policy”, Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali, 25( 8-9), 677-711.

Li, Fu-ch’un, (1955), The First Five-Year Plan, in: R. Bowie,  K. Fairbank (Eds), “Communist China 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis”, pp. 42-91, Harvard University Press: Cambridge.

Lippincott, B. (Ed.) (1964), On the Economic Theory of Socialism, by Oskar Lange and Fred Taylor, McGraw-Hill: New York.

Lippit, D.V. (1987), The Economic Development of China, M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, New York.

Liu, Shao-Chi (1958), The Present Situation, the Party’s General Line for Socialist Construction and Its Future Tasks, in: R. Bowie, J. Fairbank (Eds), “Communist China 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis”,  Harvard University Press: Cambridge.

Ma, Hong (2014) Chinese Economists on Economic Reform – Collected Works of Ma Hong, Routledge: London.

Malinvaud, E. (1967), Decentralized Procedures for Planning, in: E. Malinvaud, M.O.L. Bacharach (Eds), “Activity Analysis in the Theory of Growth and Planning”, I.E.A./Macmillan: London.

Mao Zedong (1956),   “On the Ten Major Relationships”   <https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-5/mswv5_51.htm>  (date accessed 24 February 2018).

Mao Zedong (1957),  “On Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People”, in: R. Bowie, J. Fairbank (Eds), “Communist China 1955-1959: Policy Documents with Analysis”,  Harvard University Press: Cambridge. 

Meisner, M. (1999), Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic, The Free Press: New York.

Naughton, B. (2007),  The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth, The MIT Press: Cambridge.

Sweezy, P. (1964), The Theory of Capitalist Development, Monthly Review Press: New York.

World Trade Organization (2019), World Trade Statistical Review 2019. <https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/wts2019_e/wts2019_e.pdf>, (date accessed  18 September 2020).

Xue, Mu-Chiao (1982a), Comprehensive Balance in the National Economy, in: K.K. Fung (Ed.), “Current Economic Problems in China”, by M-C. Xue, Westview Press: Boulder.

Xue, Mu-Chiao (1982b), Price Adjustment and Reform of the Price Control System, in: K.K. Fung (Ed.), “Current Economic Problems in China”, by M-C. Xue, Westview Press: Boulder.

Xue, Mu-Chiao (1982c), Economic Work must be in Accordance with Laws of Economic Development, in: K.K. Fung (Ed.), “Current Economic Problems in China”, by M-C. Xue, Westview Press: Boulder.

Xue, Mu-Chiao (1986), China’s Socialist Economy, Revised Edition, Foreign Language Press: Beijing.

Xue, Mu-Chiao (2011), A Practice-Based Review of more than two Decades of Economic Work, in: The China Development Research Foundation (Ed.), “Chinese Economists on Economic Reform – Collected Works of Xue Muqiao”, Routledge: London.

Yu, Guangyuan (2014) Chinese Economists on Economic Reform – Collected Works of Yu Guangyuan, Routledge: London.

Zhongjing Wang   China Economic Information Network, <http://www.cei.gov.cn>.

Register your account

First-time users should click on “Register your account” and enter the requested information. Upon successful registration, you will receive an e-mail with instructions to verify your registration.

Submission Guidelines

Authors’ login

Use the assigned user ID and password to login. Please, do not register again. Usernames and passwords may be changed after.

Quick search by author:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Back to the top

Institute for International Economics
of the Genoa Chamber of Commerce


Istituto di Economia Internazionale
Camera di Commercio di Genova
Via Garibaldi, 4 (III piano) - 16124 Genova (Italy)
www.ge.camcom.gov.it