China's first decade of economic reform foundered on its inheritance of Stalinist relative prices and a reform programme that neglected long-existing bottleneck industries. The lessons of China's economic reform are highly relevant to the USSR and Eastern Europe in the 1990s and of great importance to Hong Kong and Taiwan as they consider the future of the relations with the PRC and the rest of the world. This much-needed book provides the background essential for understanding the political and economic policy choices confronting the western world.