Finding a Path for China's Rise. The Socialist State and the World Economy, 1970–1978.PhilippeLionnet, (Transcript, 2023. Pp. 468. ISBN 9783837664225. PbK €55)

The 1970s stand as a decisive decade in the history of the People's Republic of China.Emerging from the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the country's leadership faced the intertwined challenges of restoring political stability and fostering economic recovery.Philippe Lionnet's Finding a Path for China's Rise delves into this critical era, shedding light on the often-overlooked dynamics that preceded Deng Xiaoping's reform policies.Lionnet argues persuasively that the 1970s were more than a transitional period -they constituted a formative phase of learning and pragmatic adaptation that laid the groundwork for China's eventual rise as a global economic power.Lionnet's study seeks to analyse the political and economic experiments of this decade, exploring how internal challenges and global engagements shaped China's trajectory.Grounded in a robust empirical foundation -including Chinese government documents, international trade data, and Western reports -the book adopts a focused thematic approach to understanding the evolving role of the socialist state in the global economy.Whilst the introduction might have benefitted from a more explicit articulation of its central research questions, the book's structure, spanning five chapters, enables a comprehensive exploration of political realignment, ideological frameworks, economic policy adjustments, and external engagement.The first chapter examines China's political and economic developments during what Lionnet terms the 'long 1970s', extending beyond the conventional temporal boundaries of the decade.The chapter compellingly illustrates how leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping sought to address the legacy of the Cultural Revolution through policies such as the 'Four Modernizations' -targeting agriculture, industry, defence, and science.These efforts are contextualized with examples, including the early focus on technology transfer from abroad, which emerged as a cornerstone of China's strategy well before 1978.Lionnet also delves into the ideological tensions within the Communist Party that complicated reform initiatives, underscoring the intricate interplay between political power struggles and economic stabilization.In the second chapter, Lionnet explores the ideological and theoretical underpinnings of socialist economic policy.He traces how the Soviet model of central planning was adapted to suit the