ABSTRACT
Resistance to Soviet pressure by accommodation with Western Powers, combined with the pragmatic foreign-policy implications of modernisation along Zhouist lines, are twin paths suggestive of an appealing symmetry. "Pushing the economy forward" was one of the four tasks set for the coming year by Hua Kuofeng in his first major policy speech at the end of 1976. The setting of target dates, particularly 2,000, reappeared in Chinese visions of the future. Mao's theoretical work on economic development was projected through different prisms to reveal support for pragmatism in economic policy and other hidden colours. While internal Chinese debate has traditionally had a foreign policy component, usually the question of relations with the Soviet Union, the policy consequences of arguments have tended to be less clear. While a head-on radical challenge to prevailing approaches in economic, foreign or defence policy is not likely, China's path to modernisation may well encompass an increase in the number and intensity of internal political conflicts.
