ABSTRACT
Most people entertain a false idea about the history of reform in China. They believe that reform was conceived by Deng Xiaoping, or by the 1978 Third Plenum, and applied according to a well-conceived process, orchestrated by higher authorities to move from the countryside toward the cities and from the economic sphere toward the political. The foundation of democracy is the autonomy of the individual in matters at once ethical and economic. The progress achieved by Chinese peasants in this direction constituted the essential element of the ten-year reform that China has experienced. From the start of the Korean War, China was constrained to adopt the methods of Stalinist states, which plunder their peasants as cannon fodder for building heavy industry and armaments factories. The establishment of the People's Communes, those structures that harness political and civil powers at the local level, marked the extreme of Chinese totalitarianism.
