Deng Xiaoping

Deng supplied political backing for China's opening to foreign investment, including the first special economic zones established in 1979–80. The zones permitted forms of foreign and joint-venture enterprise within geographically bounded experiments. Local officials and central institutions developed the arrangements; they did not abolish state ownership throughout China. Compare this gradual, place-based change with nationwide privatisation: it altered the rules under which industrial investment could occur while preserving extensive public control elsewhere.