From Mao to Jiang: China’s Transition to Communism

In 1956, Mao Zedong completed one of his proudest achievements: the abolition of private property in China. Over forty years later—March 17, 1999, to be exact—the Chinese Communist Party, led by Jiang Zemin, formally reversed course. The National People’s Congress voted 98 percent in favor of a constitutional amendment that redefined the private sector from a “complementary” to an “important part” of the economy. The amendment also promised government protection “for the legal interests and rights of the private economy.”

The Jiang regime is, of course, merely putting into legal form China’s de facto endorsement of the private sector that began with Deng Xiaoping’s reform program in the late 1970s. The standa...