China & Xi Jinping: Liberal Reform Poses Challenges

Is China reversing its economic liberalization? Chinese rulers have struggled for over 150 years with how much economic freedom to allow, and the debate under Xi Jinping is similar.

When Western nations forced China open in 1842 after the First Opium War, the country had long maintained private enterprise, along with steady, pre-industrial technological progress. But private firms were extensively controlled under the imperial governments.

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Evan Osborne

Evan Osborne is a professor of economics at Wright State University and the author of Markets With Chinese Characteristics: Economic Liberalism in Modern China (2024).

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Is China reversing its economic liberalization? Chinese rulers have struggled for over 150 years with how much economic freedom to allow, and the debate under Xi Jinping is similar.

When Western nations forced China open in 1842 after the First Opium War, the country had long maintained private enterprise, along with steady, pre-industrial technological progress. But private firms were extensively controlled under the imperial governments.