ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on decentralization reform in the foreign trade sector and its impact on the relationship between the center and localities. It analyzes the process of decision-making and implementation of related policies. As a result of the implementation of reform and the opening policy since 1979, foreign trade has played a much more important role in the growth of the national economy in China than it did before the reforms. Some fundamental foreign trade problems were not resolved, and no obvious progress was made in systemic reform. For example, the nation's centralized mandatory planning of foreign trade controlled the objectives, range, and aims of foreign economic activities. Local governments, having already gained control over vast amounts of resources, are in a powerful position to push reforms along the lines of further decentralization and resist efforts to reassert central control.
