The Political Economy of Left and Right During China's Decade of Reform

Abstract

During the decade of the 1980s, the design and implementation of economic reforms had divided the Chinese leadership into two factions: conservative proponents of moderation and “circumscribed” economic reform, and liberal proponents of comprehensive and rapid economic and social reform. Seeks to identify the economic‐theoretic core of leftist and rightist positions. The leftist position described is centred on the works of Chen Yun, Sun Yefang, and Zue Muqiao and explicitly excludes the idealistic and revolutionary political theories of Maoism, focuses instead on the more pragmatic goals of rational central economic planning. The rightist position became identified with Zhao Ziyang and his vision of mixed market socialism which, in the minds of his opponents, came dangerously close to capitalism. As the Chinese economy faltered toward the end of the decade, the conflict between leftist hard‐line conservatives and rightist liberals heightened, leading to the pro‐democracy movement of 1989 and its aftermath.