So little detailed information on the Chinese economy is available, even in the present relatively relaxed atmosphere, that readers of The China Quarterly may well be interested to hear about the attempt of Mr G. Hidasi, an East European “China-oriented economist,” to give his own account on the basis of data available to him. Mr Hidasi published his findings last year in the journal sponsored by the Academy of Sciences in Budapest.1 In his paper, he not only gives his assessment of China's economic performance from 1952 to 1970, but even ventures to guess what things will be like by the end of 1975: a unique undertaking for a foreigner who does not seem to have been in direct contact with Chinese economic reality. Like many other commentators, Mr Hidasi admits to suffering from a lack of data on targets planned and results achieved and he does not claim to have had any access to information other than that generally available to those interested in Chinese affairs. Nor does he say which of the internationally available sources, such as, for instance, the American Congressional reports or the volumes published under the auspices of the American Social Science Research Council, he has consulted. Indeed, the lack of a list of sources used somewhat weakens the author's otherwise interesting and complex “correlation calculations.” Nevertheless, they certainly merit a close examination and a comparison with communist and non-communist compilations of a similar kind.