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The transformation of the economic systems—first of rural and then of urban China—has aroused vigorous debate among Western observers over whether China has adopted capitalism, instituted a market economy, or merely modified the ways in which a socialist system is planned and managed. The totalitarianism of China at the end of Mao Zedong's life was similar in many ways to the totalitarianism that existed in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Both Maoism and Stalinism reflected an attempt to achieve complete penetration and control of society and to eliminate any islands of exemption from political intervention. The reconciliation forged between party and society has involved a series of measures designed to reduce the scope and arbitrariness of political intervention in social life. The party increasingly rests its authority on the claims that it embodies the political aspirations of a billion Chinese and is …