China's Industrial Reform and Open-door Policy 1980-1997: A Case Study from Xiamen

Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001. The 1980s and 1990s were not only a period in which many developing countries adopted a series of major economic policy reforms, but also an era in which all socialist countries undertook varying degrees of radical reforms in their Soviet-style central-planning economic management systems. This volume examines the performance of China's industrial reform and open-door policy during the period of 1980-1997 through conducting a case study on one of its Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Xiamen. It adopts an analytical approach - examining Xiamen's performance from the perspective of three important interactions: between the country's general economic reform policies and the Special Policy implemented in the SEZs; between the Xiamen SEZ and the vast Chinese hinterland; and between foreign (especially Taiwanese) direct investment and local industrial transformation.