Abstract

China's post-Mao economic reform is an intensely studied subject among scholars of Chinese politics. With China turning increasingly capitalist, the issue that consumes scholarly interests the most is how to grasp the strange fusion of two ideologically opposed systems, communism and capitalism, into which the reform has evolved the Chinese state since its inception in 1979. The present thesis approaches the issue from a historical angle, attempting to shed the light on the rise of capitalism in China by looking at the broad context of China's long march to self-generation.