ence has been a mixed blessing as a guide to Chinese institutional accommodation to change. From the rejection of the Soviet model the Chinese turned to a "search for a Maoist model". (Jones p. 58). An assumption that the search has ended and institutional stability will now facilitate Chinese economic development would seem premature at this point. The People's Republic of China has become an economically strong, unified nation. Its capability simultaneously to meet requirements of feeding its population, modernizing its military forces, and expanding its civilian economic base must now be assumed from its record to date. Moreover, its expanding economy and military establishment provide a base for projecting increasing power in consonance with its enormous human resources. Chinese influence may also be felt both through direct use of economic and military aid and the indirect example of its model of development. Thus China may in the next decade or two join the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the West European community in a pentagon of world powers. CHINA: ECONOMIC POLICY AND ECONOMIC RESULTS, 1949-71 By ARTHUR G. ASHBROOK, Jr. I. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS "China has stood up." These words of Chairman Mao Tse-tung summarize China's emergence as a strong nation-state after a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers. Since 1949, the Communist leadership has been directing China's enormous human assets and rich natural resources toward the building of a modern industrial nation self-sufficient in technology and capable of supporting large armies equipped with nuclear weapons. In pursuit of this overriding goal, the People's Republic of China (PRC), under Chairman Mao, has vigorously pursued an economic policy of military-industrial expansion, agricultural collectivization, national self-sufficiency, and consumer egalitarianism. Priorities in the allocation of economic resources accordingly have called for— (a) rapid growth in military-industrial capacity and output; (b) provision of the minimum amount of consumption goods consistent with productive efficiency and popular morale; and (c) mastery of modern technology through large-scale absorption of foreign technology and a massive program for scientific-technical education. The results of these policies and priorities, applied over two decades of Communist rule of China, have been mixed-striking economic successes, partial failures, and unfinished tasks. For the period as a whole, China's economic growth has been strong but erratic. Two periods of social and political upheaval-the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950's and the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960's-have temporarily thrown economic policy into disarray and have interrupted the momentum of growth. Any economic survey of China must take account of the effects of these swings from settled political conditions to political turbulence and back again. Table 1 divides the 22year span of Communist rule into six distinct economic periods and lists the economic policy prevailing in each period in key sectors of the economy. Tables 2 and 3, in parallel fashion, present the economic results. 76-508 0-72—2 |