Economic development in mainland China during the first two decades of Communist control provides a typical example for the difficult task to transform a vast underdeveloped agrarian economy into a modern industrial one. In the first half of this period, a series of massive transformations of social and economic institutions was accompanied by a drafted industrialization program; the result was an impressive speed-up in economic growth. The second decade witnessed an economic crisis (1960-62) and a political upheaval (1966-68). These disruptions marred the economic performance over the period as a whole. Consequently, the long-term growth rate appears to have been only moderate.The Economy of Communist China reviews selected aspects of the economy. After examining the development strategy, it analyzes the quantitative trends and the structural changes. The book goes on to analyze the key factors contributing to the earlier growth and the elements responsible for the later disruption and finally assesses the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the Chinese economy and the prospects of the current Third Five-Year Plan.The text includes a bibliography of selected materials on Chinese economic development.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Chinese government exerted unprecedented efforts and marshaled enormous economic resources for the purpose of capital formation. It was difficult for the rest of the world to determine precisely how successful these efforts were because of the incompleteness of official investment statistics. In Capital Formation in Mainland China, Kang Chao provides a comprehensive measurement of fixed capital investment in China. His basic approach is that of the commodity flow method, which takes into account each investment component and each capital goods item installed in China since 1949. He has complied extensive information both from diverse Chinese publications and from sources in countries that have exported capital goods to China. On the basis of this empirical foundation he analyzes all facets of the investment drive as well as the relationship between capital accumulation and the major aspects of Chinese economic development, revealing many details previously unknown to the West. In the process of arriving at his aggregate estimates, Chao has sorted, checked, and tabulated detailed data relating to individual components that will constitute an important aid to scholars involved in research on related subjects. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.

Maoism at the Grassroots challenges state-centered views of China under Mao, providing insights into the lives of citizens across social strata, ethnicities, and regions. It reveals how ordinary people risked persecution and imprisonment in order to assert personal beliefs and identities, despite political repression and surveillance.

China’s economic development has become a matter of world-wide interest since the boom that began in the 1980s. Key Papers in Chinese Economic History since 1949 offers a selection of outstanding articles that trace the origins of the modern Chinese economy. Topics covered include agriculture and the rural economy; industrialisation and urbanisation; finance and capital; political economy and international connections.

Abstract: A population of one billion people has the potential for enormous impact on the world food supply, but demographic and food production data for the People's Republic of China have been difficult to obtain. In an effort to fill this gap, two papers are presented which attempt ot synthesize and analyze as much information as is available and make predictions of probable trends in agriculture and related fields in the year 2000 and for the 1985 grain program. Records from 1952-77 are used to estimate cultivated land, animals, energy consumption, farm machinery, fertilizer, and output of grains, soybeans and cotton. The effects of industrailization and resources are considered. Trends are toward population control, although total demand will continue to grow; emphasis on agriculture seems to indicate that production will be capable of keeping up with demand, may result in some dietary improvement, but will not provide for emergency supplies.