A Survey of the Research on the Transitional Process of Market-Oriented Reform in China

Of all the former planned-economy countries, China might be the most successful in market-oriented reforms. China's GNP grew 9.4 percent per year from 1978 to 1994 (Li T., 1995). By 1994, the reform of the product market was basically completed with more than 95 percent of product prices determined by the market (Li T., 1995). The factor market is also forming. Because of the flow of labor and the development of the non-state-owned sector, labor is increasingly evaluated by the market; similarly, the value of land factor is accessed by the market because of the emergence of the real estate market, and the capital market and money market are preliminarily established through the securities market and the liberalization of trade on the foreign exchange. The output of the non-state sector amounts to 53 percent of the entire GNP (1993, estimated by Qiu Xiaohua), indicating that there has been a significant change in the institution of property rights. What is more important is that these changes have led to the amendment of the Constitution into which the term "market economy" has already been inserted.