ABSTRACT
China is currently in the twentieth year of its ambitious programme of reform and opening to the outside world. The past two decades have witnessed a shift of major proportions in the social and economic contours of the country, which has far-reaching importance for the Asian region and the world as a whole. The economic and social structures which are in the process of formation in the transition from a command to market economy, and from a closed to more open and accessible society, clearly bear the legacy of the previous Maoist years as well as exhibiting patterns of behaviour which have occurred in other countries of the region during their period of economic take-off. This essay briefly examines the economic and social structure of one of the most economically successful provinces, Zhejiang, and explains the paradoxical nature of the structures which have emerged and the problems these pose for its continued economic development and social cohesion.
