rfa – Radio Free asia
By Kai Di for RFA Mandarin
2023.08.10
A top Chinese economist is making waves with a recent call for a return to the economic policies of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, as ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s government struggles to inject life into the country’s economy after three years of the zero-COVID policy.
The reform era ushered in by late Chairman Mao Zedong’s successor Deng Xiaoping saw people freed up to make money as fast as they liked, and the start of a burgeoning private sector and a decades of export-led economic growth, while political ideology and authoritarian rule took a back seat.