were incentives for residents to have small families. In rural areas, the army of
enforcement officials (at least one million) tolerated families with two, even
three children. The policy was also not applied to minority households at all.
The onus of policy implementation fell on women and led to abuses such as
forced abortions and sterilizations.^33 Preference for male offspring resulted in
cases of female infanticide and under-reporting of births, as well as skewed
sex rates and the likely future problems as millions of men lack marriage
partners.
Notwithstanding these serious defects, the policy has sharply reduced the
rate of growth in China’s population as compared to relatively unconstrained
population growth in other large developing countries such as India and
Indonesia.
The second decade of Deng’s reform deepened the socialist market
economy of China. By rebuilding Shanghai as the ‘dragon’s head’ for China’s
development, the coastal areas from Shenzhen to Dalian became world factory
centers. State-owned enterprise reform and a ‘soft landing’ to avoid economic
overheating became major tasks of national development for Deng’s
successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. China’s World Trade Organization
(WTO) accession in 2002 further integrated China into the global economy.
Decentralization and liberalization in the economic realm also led to the rise
of new social forces in China. In the political sphere, the CCP recognized the
need to establish a system of rule of law, but retained authoritarian controls
over civil society. In the 1990s the regime initiated local elections at the grass
roots levels. New social associations began to emerge in the 1990s, but as we
note in Chapter 7, these remained largely under state control. The state also
emphasized a collaborative relationship with the entrepreneurial forces in the
society. The 1999 constitutional amendments indicated that ‘individual,
private and other non-public economies that exist within the limits of
prescribed law are major components of the socialist market economy’, a
change matched by the embrace of entrepreneurs into party ranks. A collabora-
tive style of governance, under the leadership of the CCP, was realized in Jiang
Zemin’s theory of the ‘three represents’: the CCP must always represent
China’s advanced productive forces, her advanced culture, and the
fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China.^34
POLITICAL CHANGE IN TAIWAN
Modern Taiwan’s economic base formed during the Japanese colonial era from
1895 to 1945. Japan established monopolies in major industries and improved
the infrastructure, and Taiwan quickly became a favorite site for Japanese
investors. Western capitalists lost access to Taiwan, and economic links
Historical patterns 29