This essay examines several works that contribute to an understanding of the nature of contemporary Chinese capitalism and its historical development. Core issues include the character of the bureaucracy, which has had a distinctive relationship to capital formation, and the character of the working class. The periodisation of Chinese capitalism and the relation between the pre- and post-reform periods are pressing political and analytical concerns. This essay suggests the advantages of a clearer focus on the dynamics of depoliticisation in understanding the transition. The contemporary left-intelligentsia in China has in large part pinned its hopes on achieving some form of ideological hegemony within the ccp, maintaining that it still operates within its revolutionary tradition. This represents a questionable strategic gamble. Acknowledging the important contributions made by Au’s book and other recent characterisations of China’s political economy from the left, this essay suggests that there remains much to be done.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Andreas Joel ‘A Shanghai Model? On Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics’ New Left Review 2010 II 65 63 85
Au Loong-Yu China’s Rise: Strength and Fragility 2012 London The Merlin Press
Barmé Geremie R. ‘Tyger! Tyger! A Fearful Symmetry’ The China Story Journal 2014 16 October, available at: <http://www.thechinastory.org/2014/10/tyger-tyger-a-fearful-symmetry/>.
Cheung Gary Ka-wai Hong Kong’s Watershed: The 1967 Riots 2009 Hong Kong Hong Kong University Press
Conway Terry ‘China: Bureaucratic Capitalist?’ Socialist Resistance 2012 7 November, available at: <http://socialistresistance.org/4188/china-bureaucratic-capitalist>.
Cui Zhiyuan Cao Tianyu ‘Liberal Socialism and the Future of China: A Petty Bourgeoisie Manifesto’ The Chinese Model of Modern Development 2006 London Routledge
Day Alexander F. The Peasant in Postsocialist China: History, Politics, and Capitalism 2013 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Ding Xueliang Bianlun Zhongguo moshi [Debating the Chinese Model] 2011 Beijing Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe
Evans Peter B., Rueschemeyer Dietrich & Skocpol Theda Bringing the State Back In 1985 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Eyferth Jacob How China Works: Perspectives on the Twentieth-Century Industrial Workplace 2006 London Routledge
Hart-Landsberg Martin & Burkett Paul China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class Struggle 2005 New York Monthly Review Press
Harvey David A Brief History of Neoliberalism 2007 [2005] Oxford Oxford University Press
He Xuefeng Zuzhiqilai: quxiao nongyeshuihou nongcun jiceng zuzhi jianshe yanjiu [Get Organised! Studies in Peasant Grassroots Organisation in the Era after the Abolition of the Agricultural Tax] 2012 Jinan Shandong renmin chubanshe
Heilmann Sebastian & Perry Elizabeth J. Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China 2011 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
Hong Ho-fung ‘Rise of China and the Global Overaccumulation Crisis’ Review of International Political Economy 2008 15 2 149 179
Hong Ho-fung China and The Transformation of Global Capitalism 2009 Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press
Hsueh Roselyn China’s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization 2011 Ithaca Cornell University Press
Hu Angang, Wang Shaoguang, Zhou Jianming & Han Yuhai Renjian zhengdao [The Right Path for Humanity] 2011 Beijing Zhongguo renmindaxue chubanshe
Huang Yasheng ‘The Politics of China’s Path: A Reply to Joel Andreas’ New Left Review 2010 II 65 87 91
International Labour Organization Global Wage Report 2012–13 2012 available at: <http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_194843.pdf>
Lee Ching Kwan Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt 2007 Berkeley University of California Press
Li Minqi The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy 2005 New York Monthly Review Press
Lippit Victor D. ‘The Political Economy of China’s Economic Reform: Observations on China and Socialism’ Critical Asian Studies 2005 37 3 441 462
Luo Gang Renmin zhishang: cong ‘renmin dangjiazuozhu’ dao ‘shehui gongtong fuyu’ [The People Come First: From ‘The People as Masters of their Own Destinies’ to ‘Common Social Prosperity’] 2012 Shanghai Shanghai renmin chubanshe
Mann Michael The Sources of Social Power, Volume 4: Globalizations, 1945–2011 2013 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Meisner Maurice The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978–1994 1996 New York Hill and Wang
Naughton Barry Growing Out of the Plan: Chinese Economic Reform, 1978–1993, 1995 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Nee Victor & Opper Sonja Capitalism from Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China 2012 Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press
Oi Jean C. Rural China Takes Off: Institutional Foundations of Economic Reform 1999 Berkeley University of California Press
Oi Jean C. & Walder Andrew G. Property Rights and Economic Reform in China 1999 Stanford Stanford University Press
Perry Elizabeth J. Shanghai on Strike: The Politics of Chinese Labor 1993 Stanford Stanford University Press
Perry Elizabeth J. & Li Xun Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution 1997 Boulder, CO. Westview Press
Pringle Tim Trade Unions in China: The Challenge of Labour Unrest 2011 London Routledge
Riskin Carl China’s Political Economy: The Quest for Development since 1949 1987 Oxford Oxford University Press
Silver Beverley Forces of Labour: Workers’ Movements and Globalization since 1870 2003 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
So Alvin ‘Beyond the Logic of Capital and the Polarization Model: The State, Market Reforms, and the Plurality of Class Conflict in China’ Critical Asian Studies 2005 37 3 481 494
Wang Hui Connery Christopher ‘Depoliticized Politics, Multiple Components of Hegemony, and the Eclipse of the Sixties’ Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 2006 7 4 683 700
Wang Hui The End of the Revolution: China and the Limits of Modernity 2009 London Verso
Wang Xiaoming Wang Xiaominga & Zhou Zhan’an ‘Xu [Preface]’ Zhongguo xiandai sixiang wenxuan [Selections from Modern Chinese Thought] 2013 Volume 1 Shanghai Shanghai shudian chubanshe
Wedeman Andrew Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and Rising Corruption in China 2012 Ithaca Cornell University Press
Whyte Martin K. The Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China 2010 Stanford Stanford University Press
Wu Yiching ‘Re-thinking “Capitalist Restoration” in China’ Monthly Review 2005 57 6 44 63 available at: <http://monthlyreview.org/2005/11/01/rethinking-capitalist-restoration-in-china/>.
Xue Muqiao, Su Xing & Lin Tse-li The Socialist Transformation of the National Economy 1960 Beijing Foreign Languages Press
Zweig David Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages 2002 Ithaca Cornell University Press
Harvey 2007; Hart-Landsberg and Burkett 2005.
Silver 2003.
Nee and Opper 2012; Oi 1999.
Andreas 2010. This is a review of Yasheng Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics. Huang replies to Andreas’s critical review in Huang 2010.
Wedeman 2012. Wedeman demonstrates that corruption was one means by which local cadre signed on to the reform agenda, but concludes that corruption, though endemic and serious, can be controlled. Current events are bearing him out.
Li 2005, pp. 50–1.
Meisner 1996.
Meisner 1996, p. 467.
Cheung 2009.
Au references Ding 2011, a widely-referenced but analytically anodyne book on the ‘Chinese model’.
Meisner 1996, p. 300.
See the discussion in Riskin 1987, pp. 20ff., which draws on Xue, Su and Lin 1960.
Conway 2012.
Hsueh 2011.
So 2005, p. 487.
Barmé 2014.
Evans, Rueschemeyer and Skocpol (eds.) 1985.
Oi and Walder (eds.) 1999.
Oi 1999.
Zweig 2002.
Heilmann and Perry (eds.) 2011.
Mann 2013, pp. 225–45.
Hong 2008, p. 161.
Whyte 2010. This study, based on fairly robust national-survey data, is not as stark in its conclusions as the title suggests, but nevertheless suggests that, despite widespread dissatisfaction, there is little mass inclination toward regime change.
Pringle 2011.
International Labour Organization 2012.
Eyferth (ed.) 2006.
Perry and Li 1997.
Wang 2006.
Wang 2009. The essay was originally published in Pipan yu zaizao [Critique and Transformation, Taiwan] and the translation is slightly amended from the original.
Wang 2009, p. 37.
Cui 2005.
Hu, Wang, Zhou and Han 2011.
Wang 2013.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 538 | 57 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 254 | 5 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 152 | 10 | 0 |
This essay examines several works that contribute to an understanding of the nature of contemporary Chinese capitalism and its historical development. Core issues include the character of the bureaucracy, which has had a distinctive relationship to capital formation, and the character of the working class. The periodisation of Chinese capitalism and the relation between the pre- and post-reform periods are pressing political and analytical concerns. This essay suggests the advantages of a clearer focus on the dynamics of depoliticisation in understanding the transition. The contemporary left-intelligentsia in China has in large part pinned its hopes on achieving some form of ideological hegemony within the ccp, maintaining that it still operates within its revolutionary tradition. This represents a questionable strategic gamble. Acknowledging the important contributions made by Au’s book and other recent characterisations of China’s political economy from the left, this essay suggests that there remains much to be done.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 538 | 57 | 3 |
Full Text Views | 254 | 5 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 152 | 10 | 0 |