China was able to survive the crisis of communism after 1976 because it went for economic
The crisis of communism experienced by China basically revolved around events that largely threatened or challenged communist or communist rule. Despite the fact that the Chinese were overwhelmed by internal blunders and bad policies by the leadership they were still able to survive the crisis under the intelligent and shrewd leadership of Deng Xiaopeng who had the foresight to go for economic reforms and not political reforms first in order to ensure China would pull through this crisis. Hence it is to a large extent that I believe China was able to survive the crisis of communism(after 1976) because it went for economic reforms and not political reforms. However, we have to bear in mind, that while China opted for economic precedence, it did not neglect the political factor. For Deng, introduced political reforms after he had introduced economic reforms and his focus on economic reforms was to ensure a smoother political transition. But even then, there was never complete political liberalization in China for although Deng believed in the flexibility of politics, he did not extend the freedom of speech to the masses but instead only confined it to the communist party members. In the economic sector, Deng had wanted to stimulate growth and provide opportunities for the various sectors to take. He realized that for China to overcome the crisis( and to ensure that the popularity of communism remained amongst the masses) he had to introduce major revolutionary economic schemes.