The reluctant dragon : crisis cycles in Chinese foreign economic policy / Lawrence C. Reardon.

The domestic determinants of Chinese foreign economic policy -- Antinomies of Chinese development, 1949-1958 -- Neomercantilism versus self-sufficiency,1959-1966 -- Chaos and the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1971 -- Resurrecting the four modernizations, 1971-1974 -- The abbreviated leftist response, 1974-1976 -- The great leap outward, 1977-1979.

Chinese foreign economic policy before 1978 has been considered isolationist and centered on Maoist self-reliance. In this revisionist analysis, Lawrence Reardon argues that China was not out of touch with the global marketplace during the 1949--78 period and that Deng Xiaoping?s heralded liberalizations were revisions and expansions of policies from the Maoist period. The dramatic economic reforms initiated by China?s leaders in 1978 boosted GDP by between 9 and 13 percent each year during the 1980s and 1990s, while the nation?s foreign trade figures rose from a trivial US$1.94 billion in 1952 to US$325 billion in 1997. By opening to the outside world and liberalizing the domestic economic infrastructure, China has become the third largest and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The story of China?s on-again, off-again trade efforts provides a window on the cyclical struggle for power between Mao Zedong?s ideologically driven allies and more pragmatic leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaopi