ABSTRACT
Shekou and Shenzhen, two cities in Guangdong province, were designated by the central leadership to be pilot zones for the reform and opening up policy in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Under the patronage of the Party’s Right,they exceeded the scope of their mandate to experiment with liberal-leaning political reforms that were in tension with the party line. Competitive elections for the government were held in Shekou. Plans for establishing a legislative-cum-consultative organ that would ‘have seen Shenzhen jumped out from the system of our country [China] completely’ were drafted in Shenzhen. The political reforms of Shekou and Shenzhen were quashed with the suppression of the pro-democracy protests in 1989. China has never seen any political reform as liberal since.
