My perspective of China's economic reform is in the context of a so‐called transitional socialist economy, i.e., a centrally planned economy moving to a market‐based economy. Extensive literature on this covers theories on the big‐bang approach as opposed to the gradualist approach, etc. But the issue is much more subtle than these approaches suggest. It involves what I call thetroika, which comprises budgetary reform, enterprise reform, and banking r