ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reconsiders the progress and pitfalls of Chinese reform socialism at a crucial turning point, as the regime stands poised between the fatal discrediting of its revolutionary leadership and the succession of a new generation. The purpose of the book is to assess the politics of the reform decade—in the light of its historical antecedents, its authors' intentions, its consequences. The book traces the reform juggernaut of the 1980s back to the radical initiatives and subsequent pragmatic adaptations to those initiatives of the three previous decades. It examines the manifest themselves in three key political arenas: central leadership, the mass public, and foreign policy. The book also reviews the tempestuous career of Mao Zedong, who personifies charisma as few others have, before turning to his erstwhile favorite and posthumous nemesis, Deng Xiaoping.
