Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sets out to a large degree China's current problem are a product of the spectacular successes achieved in a decade of reform. China's success in getting the Soviet Union to remove the three obstacles" in order to secure a Sino-Soviet summit was to have been Deng's crowning achievement. Double-digit inflation wiped out the increased buying power Chinese consumers had enjoyed and was compounded by panic buying. Widespread corruption and crime led many of those commonly described as "liberals" in the Chinese political spectrum to espouse "the new authoritarianism," a theory that advocated limiting political freedom in order to provide stability at a time of rapid economic change. The demand for change reached a crescendo in May when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in China for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years.