ABSTRACT
However, instead of a reversal, other events in the Communist world shifted the balance toward a continuation of the reforms and the ‘opening up’ of China to the outside. In 1991, the USSR collapsed under the weight of growing internal political issues and a shattered economy. The constituent republics of the former Communist giant found themselves independent for the first time in 70 years, and Russia itself began a new life as a republic. China’s former mentor and economic model was gone, and its failings were exposed for all to see.
