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3. The reform programme goes wider than the economic sphere.
In the speech entitled "The Key to an Understanding of China's
Trend of Development" which he gave at Chatham House on 11
June, 1986, General Secretary Hu Yaobang said:
"Reform, which first began in the rural areas, is in
full swing today. It covers economic, scientific-
technological and educational structures, as well as
the political regime. It is being carried out both
in the material and in the cultural and ideological
fields."
But the programme began as an economic programme and its core
is still economic. On this core, Hu said that the three
imperatives were to open the Chinese economy to the outside
world, to reform the rigid and highly centralised structure
in which administrative means had been used to manage the
economy, and to develop a planned socialist commodity economy,
based on public ownership.
4. In this despatch, I do not set out to describe the programme.
This is done in Mr Wye's memorandum. Instead, I ask and seek
to answer four questions:
(a) Why did the leadership which established itself in
undisputed power in late 1978 decide to embark on the
programme;
(b) What are the growth targets to which the economic part
of the programme is related;
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/ (c)