ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the macroeconomic dimensions of thirty-five years of Chinese development and then breaks the overall picture down by periods. It provides the basis for the subsequent discussion of the issues and contradictions that continually emerged in the development process, contradictions whose resolution was the condition for continued progress. The development of energy and transport in Shanxi province, which has China’s largest coal reserves and which together with the surrounding area is to be developed into the nation’s largest energy-supply base, indicates the acceleration in output anticipated for projects already initiated. In the countryside, the development of local initiative and self-reliance and the establishment of an institutional structure conducive to the introduction of communism, with distribution based on need, were also intended. The intensification of hierarchy and the failure to pay proper attention to popular consumption needs are both at odds with socialist development.
