Based on the author's report presented to the Conference on Legal Aspects of the Foreign Trade of the People's Republic of China, London, 1971.

This monograph is the outgrowth of areport prepared for the Conference on Legal Aspects of the Foreign Trade of the People's Republic of China, held at the Contemporary China Institute, London, on September 13-17, 1971. The Conference was sponsored by the Subcommittee on Chinese Law of the Joint Committee on Contem porary China of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, and Southern Illinois University, Edwards ville, in collaboration with the Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and Mrican Studies, University of London. I wish to thank the sponsoring institutions for the invitation to attend the Conference and the other participants for their comments on and criticisms of the paper initially presented at the meeting. To the extent possible, their remarks and suggestions have been taken into account in subsequently revising, expanding and up-dating the original essay. I also want to acknowledge my special indebtedness to Professor Victor H. Li, chairman of the Conference, for reading successive versions of this study and offering many helpful hints on how it could be improved, in style as well as substance. I trust I have made satisfactory use of this extensive technical aid pro gram.

Since the adoption of an 'open-door' economic policy in 1978, foreign trade with the People's Republic of China has increased dramatically. At the same time, 'new' forms of economic activity, such as compensation trade, licensing, co-operative production and equity joint ventures have becomepossible for the first time. In order to regulate the nation's expanded and increasingly complex business activity, the Chinese government has, during the past few years, promulgated scores of new laws relating to business transactions involving foreigners; many others are now being drafted. This book, now extensively revised and updated in a second edition, provides an introduction to the legal framework currently being developed in China with respect to foreign commerical and investment activity. The eighteen chapters in the volume, each written by a lawyer with practical experience in China trade, deal with such matters as customs regulations, taxation, representative offices, leasing, the transfer of technology, foreign investment, contracts, banking, dispute settlement, the framework oflaw in the special investment zones and in offshore oil production, China's environmental law and patent law, trade marks, sovereign immunity and the foreign regulation of trade with China. In addition, the book includes a valuable appendix containing a list of China's most important foreigneconomic legislation.

It is a pleasant task to welcome the appearance of the American edition of Professor Willy Kraus' valuable work on the economic and social development of the People's Republic of China, first published in German in 1979. The book has been updated in the light of the events that have occurred since the original publication and incorporates the latest statistical information made available by the Chinese authorities with unaccus tomed liberality. The American edition, like its German predecessor, is a monumental achievement of scholarship, attractively presented. In its comprehensiveness, insight, professionalism and wisdom it ranks among the best studies of the subject. It will add to the knowledge of the specialist, and help the interested layman find his way through the complexities of contemporary China's socioeconomic system. Professor Kraus' work is a most timely and welcome addition to a better and more thorough understanding of an absorbing and important subject. June 1982 Jan S. Prybyla Professor of Economics The Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania Preface This book deals with China's development policies. It is based on the original German edition (1979), "Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und sozialer Wandel in der Volksrepublik China," but is not merely a translation of the German original. The rapid changes in Chinese policy within the last two years, together with a sudden deluge of official data on economic and social developments in the People's Republic of China, have called for a basic and comprehensive revision of text and statistics.