Isabella Weber is the author of How China Escaped Shock Therapy and assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In the 1980s, as China sought to introduce markets into its economy, an internal debate roiled over whether to liberalize prices gradually or all at once. It rejected the free-market shock therapy option, and challenged neoliberal orthodoxy in the process.
What have three decades of market reforms meant for the world’s largest working class?
China’s united response to COVID-19 is often painted as a reflection of authoritarian “Asian values.” But the collective mobilization relied on real public support — a temporary social truce that today threatens to fracture.