On the road to a Chinese version of capitalism, the CCP stole credit from the farmers who, in the late 1970s, breathed life into the defunct marketplace. Soon enough, the capitalistic grassroots were poised to embrace a market economy. The most enterprising among them already had Hong Kong in their sights when Deng Xiaoping could only envision a special economic zone in Shenzhen. 

Politically astute, Deng chose not to brunt the capitalistic grassroots' advance by force then and there. Instead, he hijacked their market-oriented concept and practice. The West fell for him almost instantly. A favorable international climate set in. But the civil-minded reformers' challenge didn't let up. Would the Beijing Spring end up better than the Prague Spring? All those who hoped so had their hope dashed  irredeemably in June 1989.

Post-1989, old China hands still missed the point when talking and writing about Deng's Special Economic Zone. Truth be told, the SEZ was intended to corral and domesticate capitalists. Deng simply couldn't afford to let the free spirit of capitalism "contaminate" Chinese people or they would need the CCP no more. In this sense, Xi Jinping is following in Deng's footsteps. To both Deng and Xi, capitalism was and is anti-CCP. Deng encircled capitalism. Xi locks capitalism down.

Author: Lingyang Jiang