Commentary 
My tour of China with Australian journalists in 1981 concluded with a tour of the Shenzhen Free Trade Zone—which at that stage was little more than a mass of concrete being laid by the Australian company CSR.
If we saw China’s past in Shanghai, with the ludicrous decision of its economic boss—when he “followed the directives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China”—to turn heavy industry factories into light industry, then in Shenzhen, we saw China’s future.
Everything we had seen before Shenzhen spelled failure for China’s attempt to industrialize after its disastrous period under Mao Zedong. We visited a commune in Sichuan, for example, which specialized in making furniture. Its members reported impressive sales growth, doubling their output every year. How did they manage, we asked? “We sent out propagandists,” we were told.
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