NYT Archive 1989: China's Economic Reform, So Far

In the pages of the April 2, 1989's New York Times, two short reports caught a glimpse of China's economic at the time. After more than a decade of reform, Beijing's top hotels, operated by international chains, had by now caught up with the international luxury standard, with amenities such as pillow chocolates, mini-bars, and CNN.

Hu Qili (胡启立), the ideology chief of the Communist Party, was making the clearest statement about the final objectives of the party for the economy:

''Capitalism has no patent right over the market,'' Mr. Hu asserted. When asked if under fully developed Chinese Socialism, the market would be superior to centralized planning, Mr. Hu simply replied: ''Yes.'' Envisioning the new modality that combines the market with public ownership, Mr. Hu said: ''Our final objective is to expose all enterprises - individual, state, private and collective - to market competition.''

Referring to the trouble with the ongoing reform, this report continues:

Despite repeated reports in the Western press that the key market and pricing objectives of reform were being rolled back, Mr. Hu insisted that price reform was a firm objective of Chinese leadership and the basis of all other reforms.