Debating China's Economic Reform: New Leftists vs. Liberals

There have been heated debates on outcome and orientation of China's economic reforms which started in the late 1970s. Though most of the previous studies on Chinese politics concentrate on the role of elites in policy-making, I argue that the intellectual discourse over policy have become increasingly salient in the post-Mao period. The paper focuses on the following research questions: How and under what circumstances did the New Left and liberals emerge in China? What are the major debates between the two? To what extent have the New Leftists and liberals affected the economic reforms and what change they might bring to the political climate?