China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower

by Frank Dikötter

As party officials were at pains to explain, under no circumstances would the private sector be allowed to grow and overtake the public sector. ‘Now we are allowing the private sector to develop a little bit, because for the time being it is good for the state economy. But that does not mean we are moving towards becoming a capitalist society,’ one People’s Liberation Army delegate explained. ‘China is a communist country because it is led by the Communist Party, and that will never change.’62 Time and again, every major leader made similar statements, but many foreigners thought they knew better. In 1993 they had stumbled upon the word ‘transition’ to convey their vision of a country moving from the plan to the market.