Politics of China's post-Mao reforms : from the CCP's 13th Congress to the dawn of Beijing students demonstrations

This thesis is about China's post-Mao reform. Given its very broad themes, the thesis can only concentrate on a small fraction of the whole spectrum. The focus will be placed on the politics of reform, as embodied in the interplay of power and frequent policy changes in the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Additionally, as China's reform process have increasingly cut into the framework of its political and economic command system, a large number of intra party policy disagreements has arisen over the scope, strategy and speed of the reform, bringing to light the de facto competition for policy dominance among the leaders. In this regard this thesis will devote considerable attention to the analysis of the twists and turns of the reform course