Abstract EN:

The change in the "techno-economic" paradigm and the consequent trend towards economic restructuring throughout the world has forced the chinese government to redefine its relations with the international system and with its own society. In deciding to open china to the world, beijing sought simultaneously to reestablish the legitimacy of the communist party and to close the considerable technological gap which had widened between china an the west during the cultural revolution. The implementation of policies whose goal it was to improve the performance of the economy and to develop china's indigenous technological innovation provoked, however, deep changes not only in the values of the chinese society itself, but also in the way that the society interacts with the party and its leaders. The technological dimension of the process of modernization has also forced china's post-mao leaders to recognize the link between institutional environment and sustained, long-term economic growth and industrial competitiveness. Technological change cannot be separated from market structures, patterns of competition and social regulation, and from the quality of the educational system and the labour force. The continued existence of bureaucratic sectionalism and government interference in the functioning of china's state enterprises help to explain why china remains a passive recipient of technology after more than fifteen years of reform.