ABSTRACT
Wuhan was selected to pioneer an experiment in granting provincial capitals separate line-item status in the central plan in June 1984. This study of Wuhan's comprehensive urban economic reform has covered a large array of topics: the jihua danlie measure of 1984, the decentralization of enterprises, leasing, bankruptcy, manager responsibility, stocks, bonds, and capital markets and networks, lateral exchange, and materials markets and trade centers. In the case of the movement for urban independence and in the several experiments in enterprise autonomy, the form for change is therein jihua danlie, in the xiafang of firms, in leasing, but Hubei and the bureaus still have the means to make an impact on what sort of content fills up those forms. Meanwhile, Wuhan City and the management and workers in the experimental firms are all gaining a stake in the new arrangements as the state offers them the incentive to do better on their own.
