BEIJING -- These are interesting times in China. The political climate is changing; it has been for some time, but now the direction of change is becoming clear.
The man who provided the intellectual underpinnings for Deng Xiaoping's dramatic post-Cultural Revolution reform and opening-up program, and who provided the ideological basis for describing capitalism as the first stage of communism, has recanted. He has recanted big time. And he has done so saying that he got the nod from above to publish his views.
Professor Liu Guogong, one-time alternate member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (the party's think thank), and former director of the Institute of Economics (for many years the spearhead for market-oriented reforms), has decided it has all been a big mistake.