Growing Out of the Plan is a comprehensive study of China's economic reforms, from their beginnings at the end of 1978 through the completion of many of the initial reform measures during 1993. The book focuses on industry and macroeconomic policy, using these to describe reform strategy in its entirety. In addition to being a thorough and reliable guide to the specifics of Chinese economic reform, the book highlights the distinctive features of Chinese reforms that differentiate them from those in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The author argues that the success of the reforms is not the result of carefully plotted strategy, although in hindsight the reforms seem to have added up to a coherent package. Perhaps most important in its connotations for other changing economies, the Chinese experience shows that gradual change of a command economy is feasible.
