Riding the Tiger

by Gordon White

Since the late 1970s China has been undergoing a profound economic transformation ushered in by the wide-ranging program of market-oriented economic reform introduced under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. While most other studies of the reforms have dealt with their economic effects, Riding the Tiger is about the political dynamics of these reforms - their political origins and impact, and the nature of the political forces which have conditioned their character and effectiveness. It analyzes the politics of institutional reform in industry and agriculture, the impact of new market thinking and realities on China's traditional Marxist-Leninist ideology and its dominant political institution, the Chinese Communist Party. It also traces the impact of economic reform on Chinese social structure and institutions, showing how the spread of market relations has led to greater diversity in social attitudes, interests and institutions. . These changes, Gordon White argues, are in turn giving