The study presents the economic development of China over the past two or three decades, reviewing economic policy and social dilemmas as well. Since the early 1980s, Beijing gave an ever increasing role for market initiatives and achieved immense success in the evolution of productive forces but had to face the specific outcomes of the market oriented development like unemployment and income polarization. State regulation and planning were used to tame these negative effects but it is questionable whether these two different "logics" can live together on the long term.