Book contents
- Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1A Treadmill of Reforms
- 2The True China Miracle
- 3A Tale of Two Decades
- 4What Is Wrong with Shanghai and with Its Model?
- 5The State Strikes Back
- 6Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The True China Miracle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2026
Book contents
- Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface
- 1A Treadmill of Reforms
- 2The True China Miracle
- 3A Tale of Two Decades
- 4What Is Wrong with Shanghai and with Its Model?
- 5The State Strikes Back
- 6Statism with Chinese Characteristics
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the 1980s, the Chinese economy grew rapidly. Even more impressively, personal income growth, especially of rural Chinese (80 percent of the Chinese population), outpaced GDP growth. A widespread view among China scholars is that township and village enterprises (TVEs) were owned and operated by local governments, a view that has heavily shaped the China Model narrative of Chinese growth. A detailed examination of government documents, statements by Chinese leaders, and the official statistical manual shows that this view of TVEs is flatly wrong. Out of 12 million TVEs in 1984, about 10 million of them were private. If we get this detail right, TVEs are probably history’s largest private-sector success story.
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- Information
- Statism with Chinese CharacteristicsA History of China's Reforms and Reversals, pp. 52 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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