Elite politics in China: Its relationship to economic reform and Sino-Japanese economic relations during 1978-1989

This study developed a conceptual framework for understanding how Chinese elite power competition affected the course of economic reform in China and Sino-Japanese economic cooperation during 1978-1989.; The study used deductive analysis to identify causal relations among elite competition, course of reform, and foreign economic relations. It examined how China's wave-like domestic reform policies affected its shifting foreign economic relations. It also explained how factional power struggles among top Party elites decided the cyclical changing reform patterns. Based on the deductive analysis, the study conceptually linked elite power competition to China's foreign economic relations; elite positions on economic reform policies (whether "active" for market-oriented economic programs or "passive" for reimposing administrative control over the economy) have directly affected foreign economic relations with Japan. Three case studies of Sino-Japanese economic relations supported the hypotheses: the Baoshan Steel Complex (joint venture) under Hua Guofeng, the trade imbalance under Ku Yaobang, and the Hainan Project (the Yangpu Economic Zone) under Zhao Ziyang.; This study found that whenever the "active" leaders took control over policymaking, they undertook more reform programs, as well as more cooperation with foreign countries; whenever the "passive" leaders introduced more retrenchment measures in domestic economic policies, China's cooperation with foreign countries slowed down.; The study concluded that elite power competition, in most cases, has influenced the direction of China's economic cooperation with Japan. This conclusion suggests that such competition may affect Beijing's economic relations with foreign countries in general.