A Key Plank of China’s Planned Economy Is Making a Comeback. Why?

Last October, the central province of Hubei caused a minor panic when it announced the resurrection of a once obscure relic of China’s high socialist period. Known as “grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives,” they were once a fixture of China’s planned economy, facilitating the trade of grain, cloth, and other necessities nationwide from the 1950s to the 1990s. In an era when private