China's Transition from Socialism: Statist Legacies and Market Reforms, 1980-1990 (review)

254 China Review International: Vol. ?, No. ?, Spring 1994 Westview Press, 1991). Although the present study of Chinese almanacs can stand alone, readers who wish to gain a fuller background to appreciate the role ofalmanacs in Chinese culture should consult this earlier work. This short book is published in the "Images ofAsia" series of Oxford University Press and fits their goal by being "written for the non-specialist reader by an authority on the subject, with extensive illustrations...." Nevertheless, for English readers who have never seen a Chinese almanac, the best introduction is still the translation by Martin Palmer and others, titled TungShu (Boston: Shambala, 1986), which reproduces the size, format, and contents of an actual almanac. However, for those who want a convenient and authoritative historical survey of the genre unencumbered by notes, this erudite and colorful little book by Smith is unsurpassed. David W Chappell University of Hawai'i Dorothy Solinger. China's Transitionfrom Socialism: StatistLegacies and Market Reforms, 1980-1990 Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1993. vii, 292 pp. Hardcover $49.95, paperback $19.95. copyright1994 by University of Hawai'i Press As it is now more than a decade since the Dengist program of economic reform was first implemented, this collection of essays assessing the political-economic changes brought about by the reform is a timely one. The trajectory of economic reform in the People's Republic of China (PRC) over the last decade is nicely captured in this well-documented, carefully researched, and thought-provoking volume by Dorothy Solinger. In a series of essays written over the span of a decade, the author presents a portrait of a socialist reform program that has its roots in the policy debates of the 1950s, between Mao and Chen Yun, whose reform ideas were never implemented before Mao's death. Solinger's topics range from an analysis of the reform of the commercial sector (chapter 3), to changing relationships between the center and localities (chapter 7), to the new (but not necessarily ideal) relations between the state and emerging private sector (chapter 11). Setbacks and policy reversals notwithstanding, economic reforms which have been adopted in the PRC in the last decade should not be taken lightly by Western social scientists. Beginning with an essay which traces the origins of current reform policies to the economic policies initially raised at the 1956 party congress, Solinger contends that the Dengist reform program of the late 1970s was really, as she calls it, a "reformulation" ofmany of the themes addressed by Chen Yun and Xue Reviews 255 Muqiao some two decades earlier (chapter 1). In so reasoning, Solinger offers a fresh interpretation ofthe Chinese reforms as a reemergence ofimplementation of reform policies that could nothave been carried outbecause ofthe interruption ofradical Maoism from the Great Leap Forward onward. Such an interpretation is certainly not in line with the interpretation ofthose who argue that the reforms were primarily crisis-driven, prompted by the urgent need to solve the problems ofboth a sagging economy and the waning ideological commitment of the masses, nor does it complement the currentlypopular reading ofthe reforms as a "second revolution" in the history of the PRC. Solinger's work represents a stimulating and provocative addition to this debate. Throughout the essays contained in this volume, the author forcefully insists on her contention that the Chinese reform represents "a package ofmeasures valued for their potential to improve the working ofand to increase the state's receipts from national economy," and that"the fundamental commitment supporting reform, then, was a contingent and not an absolute one" (p. 4; emphasis added). The statist intention on the part of the leadership and their commitment to socialism, the author reminds us from time to time, remains basically unchanged (pp. 23, 79, 143-144). This is certainly true of the majority of the CCP leaders, including Deng himself. However, while one is easily convinced of the contingent, pragmatic nature ofthe reform program, one wonders if the original intentions ofthe leadership matter at all once the Rubicon is crossed, and whether or not such shifting contingencies push the threshold ofthe original statist (socialist) commitment. Indeed, as the author herselfhas shown quite eloquently in the later...