Customer Reviews

Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision (Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia)

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This text provides an array of bold perspectives on the Chinese economy, including that China is in a transition from state feudalism to state capitalism. Chapter 4 illustrates the intricate relationships between local enterprises and local government. The author shows how the community government organizations are adjusting their operations to maintain control over TVEs even with increasing pressures to privatize those enterprises. And, in Chapter 5, we see that the transition has not led to a loosening of state control over the cash flows of state-run enterprises in urban China either.

This book also makes it clear that to understand what is going on in China today, to make sense of the economic changes and what they may mean for the rest of the world, you need to understand the kind of Marxism that is the basis for the so-called reforms. This use of Marxian analysis as the basis for the text is fresh, yielding new insights into the transformations in the Chinese economy and society.

For instance, the author's discussion in Chapter 3 of how workers are conditioned to accept and even ignore their own exploitation, the process of "creating a consciousness of a wage laborer", is particularly insightful. It led me to contemplate how workers in the US are similarly conditioned. In Chapter 6, the author suggests that increased compliance with WTO provisions may gradually bring about an end to widescale self-employment in the agricultural sector.

The author introduces a compelling, attractive term, "cybersuperorganism", that nicely captures how technology (especially communications technology) is helping to create these vast decentralized entities from distinct yet diverse parts such as transnational firms, their constituent components and their external linkages.

Given the latest news about Yahoo and Google's compliant dealings with the Chinese government, it is appropriate that one of this author's main take-home points is that China still maintains a large degree of control over how its country is linking up to the transnational global economy and vast networks of people, businesses and institutions. In my opinion, this book would be most useful to anyone planning to do business in China, or have dealings with Chinese enterprises or governmental bodies.

Also notable is how the text is able to discuss the conflicting ideologies within the Chinese party in an open and non-reductionist manner, pointing out the intricate effects these conflicts have had on the society. The author is also very careful to define terms before they are used both within the text and with a simple glossary.

In general, the text provides some fresh insights into the transformation of the Chinese economy. The book looks not only at the past, but also toward the future and helps us better understand where China might be going. A sense of the author's deep understanding of the intricacies of this topic is evident.

I must say the price of this text is a bit steep but its profoundly unique perspective and comprehensive exploration of economic, cultural, and political relationships make it well worth it. I can't say this enough, but you really can't find an analysis of this type anywhere else. The ideas that arise out of the author's analysis of China represent a fundamental paradigm shift in how we look at China, global business, and economies in transition.