Next came the expansion of the township and village enterprises.50 The gradual approach reflected the pragmatism of Chinese leaders. Another reason for this pragmatism was the perception that the transition was impossible to plan, compounded by disillusionment with the whole planning system. Some influential cross-national studies in the 1990s purported to show that rapidly opening up would automatically lead to high economic growth. Not all countries that increased trade openness made big improvements in HDI value relative to their peers.