Chinese industries were prematurely exposed to the outside world. They were inadequately prepared and poorly equipped to compete in the international and even domestic markets. Most exporters were small individual producers and most of their profits were taken by numerous "middle man".
Western capitalism greatly changed the Chinese economy. On one hand, the opening of China undermined the basis of China's self-sufficient economy, the urban handicraft and rural homestead industries. On the other hand, it greatly enhanced the development of China's urban market economy. Such fundamental changes in the Chinese economy inevitably brought changes at the social and ideological levels.