The old state planner Chen Yuan once cautioned that Chinese reformers had created "a birdcage economy" in which a capitalist bird was growing within a socialist cage. His inference was that, unless Party leaders were careful, this capitalist bird would literally burst out of its socialist cage, spelling an end to China's Marxist-Leninist revolution.
计划经济的元老陈云曾警告说中国的改革者们缔造了一种"鸟笼经济"，即资本主义的鸟成长在社会主义的笼里。他这番话的寓意是说中共的领导人必须非常小心，否则资本主义的鸟就会撑破社会主义的笼，从而终结中国的马克思-列宁主义革命。