This year China has redoubled its commitment to revamping the state-dominated parts of the economy—or at least, that is what the government's rhetoric suggests. One reason is the challenge and pain of the World Trade Organisation (wto), which China will probably join later this year. More reform-minded officials, led by the prime minister, Zhu Rongji, are in the ascendant. Their view is that the Chinese economy is at last showing signs of accelerating, after seven years of slowing growth. If new jobs cannot be found during the coming recovery for the tens of millions who have in recent years lost their jobs in state enterprises, and if a social safety-net cannot be woven to catch the victims of "restructuring", then the last, best chance for serious reform will have been lost.
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