Eingestellte DIW Publikationen 1 / 1971, S. 53-64
Ernst Hagemann
Foreign trade in the People's Republic of China is controlled by a state monopoly, and is organized and conducted largely after the pattern of other socialist countries. China is not, however, a member of Comecon and does not coordinate her economic plans with those of the eastern European countries. The foreign trade intensity of the People's Republic of China has always been low and has diminished in recent years. Since the founding of the People's Republic, China has oriented herself quite one-sidedly to the socialist countries conducting over 70 per cent of her foreign trade with this country group. The foreign trade has been complementary with respect to the differing production and commodity composition and in general has been regarded by both sides as advantageous. The USSR and the other eastern European countries provided China with capital and technical assistance which made a substantial contribution to the rapid growth-particularly in the First Five-Year-Plan-of the Chinese economy. However, Soviet capital assistance was quite limited in terms of China's total indebtness to the USSR. Since the early 1960's, China has drastically reduced her close trade ties with the USSR and the eastern European countries-primarily for political reasons -, to the extent that today only about 25 per cent of foreign trade turnover is with this country group. To be sure, indications have increased in recent years that China does not wish to allow the share of the socialist countries - particularly those in Eastern Europe - to decline further.