1. Concluding the Complex Learning Process: Chinese Elites' Acceptance of Outwardly-Oriented Development.
- Author
-
Reardon, Lawrence
- Subjects
- *
FOREIGN investments , *SELF-reliance , *INTERNATIONAL economic relations , *ECONOMIC zoning , *NATIONAL security ,ECONOMIC conditions in China, 2000- - Abstract
During the complex learning process that occurred between 1979 and 1987, elites confronted anomalies in the long-term revolutionary development paradigm, which sought to establish a strong independent China by achieving three interrelated goals: security, prosperity, and self-reliance. Based on the perceived success of the SEZs and the nascent coastal development strategy, elites reached a consensus over replacing the long-term goal of self-reliance with a state-managed embrace of the international economy. The concept of self-reliance thus became obsolete as elites were no longer tethered to the Nativist beliefs of Mao Zedong and had incrementally learned of the limitations of import substitution. This paper hypothesizes that by 1987, Chinese elites agreed that China should join the rest of the East Asian economies in formally adopting outwardly oriented development regime, which regarded foreign capital, technology, and markets as tools to empower China. Elites thus initiated the GATT accession process, established the fifth special economic zone on Hainan, and announced the coastal development strategy. A new generation of technocratic elites would take over the countryâs leadership to institute the new technocratic regime. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009