encourage laziness among labourers. Farmers rented farmlands from the government and grew their own crops.
After turning in a small amount of crops to the government, they could keep the rest for trading or their own use.
The household responsibility system increased its flexibility in citizens’ property management. Types of crops
were free for each family to choose to grow. Most families would choose high-price crops to earn more. A more
substantial supply of cotton and food were produced to support the huge Chinese population and economic
development.
Knowing that farmlands were a limited source for all the people in China, the government decided to
develop township and village enterprise, so as to support the surplus workforce. It was like a manufacture
company formed by peasants, making kinds of products and gears. The Chinese government supported the
enterprise by asking town factories to outsource certain processes to these townships and village enterprise. In
addition, the government lowered tax rates, and gave special offers to support the running of the enterprise.
State-owned enterprises expanded a setting up business system. The town and village enterprises not only
tackled the unemployment rate, but also provided a spectrum of goods for Chinese citizens to consume. In 2008,
32.7% of village workplace population worked in the township and village enterprise. Midea, one of the
mainland’s township and village enterprises, was the first one listed in a stock market.
China’s economy has strived for perfection by focusing on its secondary production. It highly stressed on
production of factories. Before the reform, the politicians had to deal with both politics and business. Most
politicians had no experience on running the business and lack of knowledge to run businesses. As for the state-
owned enterprise, politicians were separated from upholding rights to manage enterprises. Adopting the style of
the household responsibility system, employees were given a salary which was proportional to their work
performance. Such acts could raise their spirits towards their duties. Restrictions on businesses were trimmed
down. Lenovo, for example, was an enterprise of the non-public sector, which was the biggest Chinese
computer manufacturer. It bought IBM to boost its brand.
Last but not least, China launched an opening-up plan to restore its economy.
To become stronger, China figured out that only by following the way of western countries and the trading
model could China’s economy develop steadily. To do so, China opened its market to foreign companies for
investments as well, the so-called ‘opening-up’ attempt. Flexibility of market investment has hence been
increased. Three types of businesses, including foreign invested companies, China and foreign countries co-
invested companies and China western countries co-operated companies were developed under such policies.
These three types of businesses created a lot of job opportunities, which decreased the unemployment rate and
increased the average income of Chinese citizens. Over 20% of government taxation came from these three
types of business.
Through taking these reactive initiatives, China successfully boosted up its economy. Ergo, a well-nurtured
market was sown since the late 70s. For the past decade, China had received an uprising GDP trend, and for the
first time, China’s rising GDP had become the highest on the globe. To sustain the victory, it continued
cooperating with other countries and expanded its land for industrial development and modernisation. Such
breakthrough qualified China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000. Apart from GDP, it has also
become the second biggest luxury goods market. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou became the three most
famous economic cities in China. Companies set up in these uprising cities.
As we can see, China has changed its role and attitude towards manipulation of the market. Before the
reform, she adopted an all-round perspective, controlling role, and highly emphasised on the speed of
economical development (based on the GDP value). For an all-round perspective, people’s living, food supply,
medical services were under control the control of the government. People were not given the chance to take
care of their own lives. Whenever there was a problem, the Chinese government would deal with it. Little room
was provided for citizens to make decisions, and therefore society lacked motivation. Learning from its mistakes,
the Chinese government altered its plan and let the market take the lead, stating its main duty was to serve
people. The government claimed that its duty was to maintain social order and harmony only. The government
no longer supported businesses which involved high cost, high consumption, high pollution and low efficiency
production. In addition, to become an environmentally-friendly empire, China signed the Kyoto Protocol, which
was a promise to only release a certain limit of gases. To fulfil the goal without sacrificing the economy, China
highly stressed on developing green GDP, the GDP value gained by the green industry. All these changes
indicated that China was revived by wearing a brand new attitude towards its economy and the world. Its vision
no longer sticks to its land but also the globe.
To sum up, China’s economy has been thriving over the past forty years due to the efficient reform on
economy and the alternation on the government’s role towards market control. A fairly organised, all-round
