ABSTRACT
The factors driving economic policy making in China have changed dramatically since the CPC began to think about national economic management. The history of economic policy making by the CPC in Ya'nan is not as well known as that of northeastern China after the PLA had established effective control over that area. Deng Xiaoping's genius was that he combined a clear vision of economic modernization with great persuasive powers and practical policy insights. After his political rehabilitation in 1977, his greatest contribution to China's modernization and development was his insistence on independent, non-ideological thinking by fellow Party members, while emphasizing that economic policy making had to be based on empirical information. Zhu Rongji paid personal attention to the final and most important of those conferences, which was held in Dalian. The structural economic problems were still plaguing China at the end of the first 5 years of the follow-up government of President Xi Jinping and PM Li Keqiang.
