Soldiers of Fortune: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Military-Business Complex, 1978-1998 The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Military-Business Complex, 1978-1998

In 1978, faced with the pressure to modernize and a declining budget, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) reluctantly agreed to join China's economic reform drive, expanding its internal economy to market-oriented civilian production. This work examines PLA's role in the economy up to 1998.