ABSTRACT
The fundamental question that underlies long-term developments in China is what the future has in store for the uneasy alliance between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the state that it controls, and the market economy as this extends nationwide beyond the rapidly developing coastal regions. It is a question that could be posed to the CCP leadership, in terms of the classic Marxist analysis of confl ict between the economic base and the social and cultural superstructure, but it rarely is.
