ABSTRACT
China’s global influence on and interaction with the world grew enormously in the 1980s, and Deng Xiaoping’s policies encouraged what Keith Robbins calls a ‘growing global consciousness.’ Deng’s great transformation of China was referred to as the policy of Reform and Opening, or kaifang – the ‘opening up’ of China to the outside world. The economic reforms led to structural changes, a raising of living standards for many and the emergence of a stronger middle class with new cultural values, but there was also rising unemployment as the liberalised economy saw the state withdraw from certain areas of the economy. Yongnian Zheng argues that China’s economic reform under Deng was ‘a systemic reaction to the economic, political, and social consequences of the Cultural Revolution’ which ‘left second generation leaders under Deng Xiaoping with the urgent task of changing development strategy and seeking new sources of legitimacy.’.
