Introduction: the emergence of a new era

China is currently experiencing the most stable and prosperous period in its modern history. Before the economic reform of 1978, Chinese people had experienced considerable and prolonged periods of suffering. For many years, Chinese people were ‘subjected to aggression and humiliation’ (Deng, 1984), devastated by civil wars and uprooted by class struggles. In particular, the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) launched by Chairman Mao Zedong, assisted by Lin Biao and the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen), led to millions of Chinese people being either physically and psychologically tortured or killed because the basic rights of Chinese citizens were completely suppressed. China was left in social and political chaos following the end of the Cultural Revolution, with many Chinese people struggling to eke out a bare subsistence lifestyle. According to Deng Xiaoping (1987), ‘during the 20 years from 1958 through 1978, China was hesitating, virtually at a standstill’. It is a fact that the Chinese government started its modernisation project under severe constraints, namely, multiple incidents of social and political turmoil; being a poor country having to feed a quarter of the world's population; lacking modern economic management; and suffering a long period of authoritarian rule and from more than three decades of international isolation.

Against China's backwardness and poverty, Chinese leaders had a strong desire to transform it into a prosperous country, shifting the focus of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from previous non-stop political campaigns (and class struggles) to economic activities. As Deng (1978) reminded his colleagues, the CCP should avoid the rigid ideological disputes that had dominated the past and put practical efficacy as ‘the sole criterion for testing truth’.