The Chinese Market

Since the open-door policy in 1978, the Chinese government has reformed the market system step by step. Now the system is called socialist market system with Chinese characteristics. In this market system are some key industries still under the control of the government as before 1979. But the government is handing over the main control of the market step by step to the market.

China is the world's largest country in terms of population with about 1.3billion people living in its 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities (which are directly under the central government) and 2 special administrative regions. From an economic point of view, the Chinese market can he divided into seven market zones:

1. North-east market zone, which accounts 13.2% of China's area and hosts about 10% of the total population. Most business in this region is engaged in energy and heavy industry;
   
2. North China market zone, which includes the two municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin and is known for its light industry in textile and electronics and for energy;
   
3. Changjiang River Delta, where 80% of the Made-in China products come from. Shanghai, China's largest city, and Wenzhou, China's largest private economy city;
   
4. South China market zone, which mainly produces appliances and has a lot of light industry;
   
5. the middle and upper part of the Yellow River;
   
6. the middle and upper part of the Changjiang River;
   7.the last zone includes Tibet and Xinjiang in the very west of China, both being autonomous regions and the poorest parts of China, hosting 21.87 million people and almost a third of China's land.

Each zone has got its key industries, which are different from other zones. The southern part of China continues to be the richest area in China, which is one of the reasons that it was the first area to be opened to the outside world. The economic development of China is unbalanced, which indicates that the inland regions are economically underdeveloped, but the coastal area has a fairly well-developed economic environment. The Chinese market has its own history, its own features, and has now, with the background of the world economy, its tendency towards globalization. Let's examine some of the aspects of the Chinese market as follows；

A Brief History of the Chinese Socialist Market

Founded in 1949, the People's Republic of China began to establish slateowned enterprises and to carry out a prbgrammed land reform in the country. 1956 saw the start of the five-year plan for the construction of socialism. In 1958, China launched an ambitious campaign called the Big Leap Forward, but in the following three years, China had to revise its plan for economic development. 1966 saw the start of the Cultural Revolution which slowed down thee conomicdevelopment of the country. But the situation changed in 1978, with the beginning of the era of economic reform.

In 1992, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China set the objective of establishing the socialist market economy, and the Third Plenary Session of the CPC 14th National Committee put forward concrete objectives and procedures for the construction of the socialist market economy, marking the further acceleration of China's reform and the opening to the out side world and confirming that the socialist market economy had entered an unprecedented new stage. Since then, the Chinese economy has been booming and as a result China has reached the sixth place in the world according to its GDP by the end of 2002. A glimpse of the steps China has taken and has continued to take and will take after its "Cultural Revolution" will help us better understand the development of China.

• 1978: After the "Cultural Revolution", China began to pursue an opendoor policy;
• 1979: Reforms in particular areas took place;
  1. Liberalization of some of the sectors of the industries;
  2. Price reform in a dual way;
  3. SOE began to turn into share-holding ones;
• 1984: Reforms were enlarged and further activities of privatization took place ;
• 1988: The government reviewed some reforms;
• 1992.. Policy of stabilization, and revitalization;
• 2001: China entered WTO;
• 2008.. China will host the Olympic Games;
• 2010: China will host the worldwide Expo in Shanghai.
  

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