ABSTRACT
With WTO membership a reality, China is poised to be fully integrated into the global system of free trade and investment flows. This will effectively complete the twenty year search for a viable economic relationship with the outside world. Looking back, the policy search that first emerged from the collapse of the familiar Maoist policy doctrines of 'self-reliance' and autarchic nation-building were, in the first instance, basically a strategy to achieve the Four Modernisations through rapid technology transfer from the West and Japan. However, what was initially manifested as hugely enhanced demand for technology imports, transformed itself into a process that has resulted in the opening up of China to the world in a far reaching way. The subsequent sequence of events is familiar, but the logic underlying this is worth further exploration, and as we shall see, what has happened is broadly consistent with the Dengist philosophy of incremental reform and a gradual transition from the planned system. Let us look at the main changes that have occurred.
