ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on press material on the petty private sector from the early 1980s to illustrate the efficacy of the three-line model in representing Chinese social reality. It illuminates certain social features of fairs and small selling that are obscured by adherence to the time-worn two-line approach to Chinese politics. The three-line model sensitizes the analyst to the ideological bases, social interests, power resources, incentives, and motivations of the concerned parties in a manner that the old left-right formula misses. The chapter focuses on the period of the early 1980s for a couple of reasons. It shows the effects at the local levels of society of the coexistence of different lines or tendencies within a given period, while at the same time highlighting the clashes between central leaders and the supposed implementers of their policies, the local cadres. The chapter addresses the tendency for various affected parties to over-respond to central-level orders they find favorable to their interests.
