ABSTRACT
The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held in December 1978, marked a watershed in China's economic history. A new phase of economic and social development has since been initiated, goals and priorities have been substantially revised, relative weights and inter-relationships of the production sectors (state, collective and private) have been radically altered and a series of structural reforms have significantly modified the production relations within the collective sector, particularly in the rural economy. Most outside observers have been puzzled by these changes, especially by those in the commune system which had so far been almost universally recognised as the crowning achievement of the Chinese revolution.
