In the first study in depth of this subject by an economist, the author focuses on a major problem—common to all planned economies—that has confronted the Chinese Communists: whether to centralize all controls in the hands of the planners, or to allow factory and farm managers some degree of autonomy regulated only by the indirect pressures of the market. Because the finding of a satisfactory solution has been of highest importance to Peking, this study of the issue throws light on the shifts and turns of Chinese economic policy in general and on the underlying nature and significance of the broad trends in China's economy and society since 1949.