Guest Editor's Introduction

The eight articles translated here cover a variety of issues stemming from China's almost twenty-year experience with reform. They are linked together by some commonalities, however. First, they reflect the debates within China over the effects of the reforms to date. Which results should be seen positively and which should be seen negatively? What should be the next step? Second, the articles included here are often particularly revealing because they all stem from "internal" (>i>neibu>/i>) publications intended for a specialized audience and not for the general public. In other words, these selections seem more like an inner-Party discussion on issues where the conclusion has yet to be reached than would be the case for an article published in the open press, which is generally intended to inform the attentive public of official policy decisions that have already been reached. Even in those cases in which it is clear that the leadership >i>has>/i> made its decisioâas in selections 1 and 2 on the Special Economic Zonesâthe selections provide far more information than is comonly the case for articles in the open press.