China's economic growth, structural transformation and food trade

Abstract

Since the end of the Cultural Revolution the Chinese economy has grown very rapidly. This growth has been spurred by the major economic reforms of the late 1970s and early 1980s which, among other things, liberalised domestic agricultural markets and international trade and finance, and switched the emphasis of industrial policy from heavy to light manufacturing. During the 1973-83 period China's per capita income grew at 4.5 per cent, almost treble that of other developing countries. At the same time China's exports and imports grew at more than twice the rate of world trade growth. Exports in 1984 represented 10.6 per cent of China's national income, compared with only 5.3 per cent as recently as 1977 and a low of 2.9 per cent in 19