In contrast, during the reform era there has been a steady process of depoliticization, accompanied by a steep decline in the importance of ideology. The highly politicized and obtrusive Maoist state has given way to what now looks more like a technocratic state, in the manner of other East Asian developmental states,94 although the powers of the Chinese state remain wide-ranging, from the one-child policy and internal migration to history books and the media.95
