* Deng's government abandoned rigid adherence to communist dogma in favor of a more pragmatic approach that would �unleash the tremendous working capacity of the peasants.� This included a gradual phasing out of government economic restrictions and an increase of trading contacts with the West.
* July 1986: China formally applies for membership to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the predecessor of the World Trade Organization.
* February 19, 1997: Deng Xioaping dies. He is succeeded by Jiang Zemin.
* The regime has steadily shifted toward a policy more overtly welcoming of capitalistic developments. Jiang Zemin�s �three represents� theory, for example, has broadened the party�s class restrictions to include entrepreneurs and the �advanced productive forces� of China.
* March 1998: China�s 15th National People�s Congress meets and outlines a five-year plan for broad-based legal reforms in realms that include investment, state-owned enterprises, the housing system, and government organizations.
* 1999: Over ten million Chinese lose their jobs as the government struggles to reform the inefficient and cumbersome public sector. Growing private industries are expected to accommodate for this dramatic surge in the labor pool.
* 1999: Hong-Kong is assimilated into China after the expiration of a 99-year British lease. Its economic structure remains largely intact and free-market according to Jiang�s �one country, two systems� model.
- May 2000: the U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill granting permanent normal trade relations to China.