The Chairman of the State Planning Commission of the PRC, in 1955, attributed the economic problems countering the development of the socialist economy to 'the anarchy of capitalist economy. ' However, after three decades of central planning, the President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences exclaimed, 'Today we are all recognizing the irrationality of an economic structure that has built up over the years.'The author of this book examines the economic policies and performances that brought such a radical transformation to the world outlook of China's leaders.The book contains three parts. The first part traces the historical roots of China's chaotic economic condition and hyperinflation in the 1940s and the early 1950s. The second part deals with how the "irrational" economic system was formed. The third part deals with the reasons for the emergence of economic "irrationality", resource misallocation, the necessity of economic reforms, and industrial restructuring.