Economic Reforms in China

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to the economic reforms in China as discussed in the lecture.

Great Leap Forward

A campaign from 1958 to 1960 aimed at rapidly transforming China into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization.

Cultural Revolution

A socio-political movement in China from 1966 to 1976 aimed at preserving communist ideology by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society.

Danwei

Work units in China that provided housing, ration cards, healthcare, and pensions to citizens, while allowing the government to monitor their activities.

Red Guard

A mass student-led paramilitary social movement during the Cultural Revolution aimed at enforcing communist ideology and combating bourgeois elements.

Household Responsibility System

An economic reform introduced in the early 1980s where individual families contracted land from the state, making their own farming decisions and allowed to sell surplus crops.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

Areas in China designated for economic reforms, allowing foreign investment, low taxes, and modern infrastructure, beginning in the early 1980s.

Iron Rice Bowl

A term used to describe the system in which state-owned enterprises guaranteed job security and stable income and benefits, which ended in the late 20th century.

Pragmatism

A practical approach to problems and issues, focusing on results rather than ideological positions, emphasized by Deng Xiaoping in economic reforms.

Property Law in China

Legislation governing land use rights in China, where individuals do not own land outright, but have lease-like rights lasting up to 70 years for residential land.

1-child policy

A population control policy in China that was implemented in the late 1970s and formally ended in 2016, originally limiting families to one child.