How China Became Capitalist

Problems of China’s Rural Labor Markets and Rural-Urban Migration* Belton M. Fleisher Ohio State University and Dennis Tao Yang Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Center for China in the World Economy, Tsinghua University October 2005 * We would like to thank Nicholas Hope, John Pencavel, Xiaojun Wang, and participants in Stanford conference on China’s Market Reforms and 2004 Chinese Economists Society meetings for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this paper.

This article investigates China's market reforms and rapid economic development from the late 1970s. The following questions are posed: (1) How did the Chinese ‘peasant revolution’ and the rural policies and institutions of Mao China influence the market reforms and subsequent economic development? (2) How does China's development after the market reforms relate to Marxist and Polanyian notions of proletarization and commodification of land and labour as preconditions of capitalist development? (3) To what extent and why does China's development after the market reforms diverge from East Asian growth with equity? (4) How does China's ‘decentralized developmental state’ influence its growth model and distribution? (5) The present Chinese government tries to promote greater equality and more domestic consumption. Is this a Polanyian ‘double movement’ in response to commodification of land and labour? How likely are these policies to succeed? These questions are addressed through historical–comparative analyses with comparisons of long-term rural dynamics of Mao China and the former Soviet Union. China after the market reforms is compared with England during its transition to agrarian capitalism and industrial capitalism from the sixteenth century through the early nineteenth century and with Taiwan and South Korea from the late 1940s until the 1980s.

Purpose– The achievement of self-reliance (zi li geng sheng: “regeneration through one's own efforts”) is an important Chinese goal. Mao Zedong's approach to achieving this goal after 1960 was to advocate and practice economic self-sufficiency both within China and nationally. One purpose of this article is to outline and discuss Mao's approach and its consequences. Following China's market reforms commencing in 1978, Mao's economic self-reliance policies were systematically abandoned. The second aim of this article is to consider how China's market reforms and its development have impacted on subnational economic self-reliance within China and to assess the extent to which its open-door policy has reduced its national self-reliance.Design/methodology/approach– Secondary sources and data are used to develop this article.Findings– As a result of its market reform and economic development, all parts of China's economy have become more interdependent and continue to do so. In addition, China has become more dependent for its economic welfare on international trade, but its dependence is much less than that of many other countries, for example, Germany. Nevertheless, the Chinese still endeavour to be masters of their own destiny. From this perspective, Mao's principle of self-reliance has not been abandoned.Originality/value– Despite its growing economic interdependence, China continues to value its capacity for autonomous goal setting and decision-making. This is illustrated by the strategies it has adopted to address its dependency on oil imports. Nevertheless, China's increased economic interdependence adds to China's challenges and difficulties in controlling its economic affairs.

In the early 1990s, leaders allowed market liberalization to proceed in food markets. During this time, markets burgeoned with grain. Faced with tight budgets, leaders saw an opportunity to make the economy more efficient and at the same time reduce government fiscal obligations. Urban grain reforms phased out rationing and provided incentives for city grain retailers, who had been ration shop bureaucrats, to engage actively in market trade (Watson). These policy shifts were closely followed by a series of rural marketing reforms, and, for the first time in many decades, transactions among private and commercialized traders accounted for most of the movement of China's food. While the initial implementation of liberalization policies was considered by most to be successful (Chen 1994b), during the rapid food price inflation in 1994 officials attempted to reverse some of the reforms. A perception of loss of control over agricultural commodity circulation has led to a reassessment of the progress of China's market reform program (Duan). Policy makers and academics have vigorously debated the reasons for successes and failures of the liberalization of food markets and the implications for future policy reform. Some argue that the recent breakdown in agricultural pricing policy calls into question the commitment the government should make to re-

Despite the significant political, economic and geographical diversity in China, there is limited research on spatial differences in intergenerational mobility in China. This research aims to fill this gap by exploring the spatial and temporal dimensions of intergenerational educational mobility in China. The data used for the analysis is the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), a nationally representative longitudinal general social survey. The analysis incorporates both relative and absolute mobility measures to provide a comprehensive description of intergenerational educational mobility. The results reveal substantial regional differences in intergenerational educational mobility across various economic zones in China, with a rising geographic inequality over time. The southwest and northeast regions stand out as the areas where the educational prospects of the young generation have become not only bleaker but dependent more on their parents. Additionally, this study presents the first education Great Gatsby Curve for China, highlighting the strong relationship between intergenerational mobility and education inequality at the regional level, particularly after China's market reform. The findings highlight the need for regionally targeted policies and levelling up agendas to promote educational opportunities in low‐mobility regions.

ABSTRACTChina is attempting to initiate its own carbon market—an important market-based policy instrument which would determine the fate of global climate policy as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide across the world. This article looks at carbon trading development so far and examines the key challenges ahead in China. These past experiences—whatever from international CDM practice, or SO2 emission trading and a domestic voluntary carbon market—have paved the solid way to build the existing ETS pilots similar to European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). The investigation into China’s ETS pilots discovered some important and urgent issues such as the capsetting and deepening energy market reform.

This book presents a compilation of studies on China’s labour market. These explore institutional and political constraints on the operation of the market, and their changes over time. The book is divided into four parts. Part I studies the Chinese labour and wage system under the planned economy, labour market reforms, their evolution, and their consequences. Part II examines the various aspects of the labour market such as wage structure and segmentation. Part III analyses the rural labour market. Part IV discusses the imperfect labour market.

In the histories of capitalist genesis and development, including the capitalist logic of the Cold War and post-Cold War (and the threatened new Cold War) and of neoliberal globalization, the market integration and invigoration which has brought the economy of Communist China to global prominence is a remarkable story. Of intense scholarly interest are China's growth model, institutional and policy adaptations, and interactions with others in the geo-economic and geopolitical reordering of the world. Yet, despite the expanding literature in this field, comparative case studies which delve into the extensive historical and international, as well as intellectual and discursive, contexts are relatively rare. Isabella Weber's book How China Escaped Shock Therapy contributes to filling this gap. A quick background sketch of the familiar yet often neglected basics is useful here. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded upon, and fundamentally defined by, the victory of the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949. Committed to both national and social liberations, the revolution achieved unity and independence for the country in terms of socioeconomic development, forging a self-aware sovereign people in the process. In constructing a socialist political economy, the new regime pursued a collective, egalitarian and participatory politics. The state mobilized resources to rapidly accumulate capital and labour, buttressed by a I would like to thank Andrew Fischer and his co-editors at Development and Change for their kind invitation and critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and the editorial office team for their copy-editing assistance. My appreciation goes to Isabella Weber for her original and stimulating contribution, and for all that we share in understanding China.

During the process of China forest industry's ongoing marketization reform, we can find out that there are many problems existing in the China's forest enterprises' marketing efforts. To adapt the current resources scarcity situation and the dynamic competitive market, it is necessary for the forest products manufacturers to improve their marketing capabilities. Building a forest product marketing system, based on the China's market circumstances, is pressing and urging both for the academic research and practical implementation in forest industry. This paper is based on perspective of the forest products enterprises' marketing operations, and composed by six core parts. First, the authors discussed the present status of china's forest products marketing, pointed out the necessities for building the Forest Products Marketing System, and then figured out the principles for building the Forest Products marketing system. to construct the system, the authors listed five most important sub-systems to compose an integrated forest products marketing system, and coupled all the essential elements with the value-added perspective. Finally, the authors predicted the value of this model's application in forest industry.

With the advancement of the new round of electricity market reform, the promotion of the optimal cross-regional power resource allocation and the establishment of a unified “unified opening and orderly competitive” electricity market have become the ultimate goals of the electricity market construction. This paper analyzes the main problems in China’s current electricity market systems in terms of resource endowment, trading barriers, and renewable energy curtailments. Based on the experiences of electricity market construction in Europe and the U.S., a three-level operation framework of a national unified market system is proposed considering the basic conditions of the grid structure and resource endowments, and then several key issues are analyzed in detail. Finally, the enlightenments and suggestions for promoting the construction of a national unified electricity market are put forward.

China has a long history of education, and its institutionalized educational leadership and administration can be traced back more than 2,000 years. Since then, educational leadership and administration systems have evolved with the development of society, politics, economy, and culture, and an educational leadership and administration system with significant Chinese characteristics has been formed. The current educational leadership and administration system in China is stipulated by different laws and regulations of the country. The State Council and the local people’s governments at various levels are responsible to guide and administer educational work under the principles of administration by different levels and a division of responsibilities. This educational leadership and administration system in China is related not only to the history of the centralized culture but also to the administration system of the country. At the beginning of the 21st century, the world is undergoing significant development, profound change, and major adjustments, while China is currently at a key stage for reform and development. World multi-polarization, globalization of the economy, development of the knowledge economy, dramatic changes in science and technology, competition for talent worldwide, and the trend toward industrialization, informatization, urbanization, marketization, and internationalization in China pose a severe challenge to education and its administration. At the same time, some serious problems in educational leadership and administration remain to be solved. Facing these challenges and problems, the government called for reforms to promote the educational governance system and modernization of the educational governance capability to educational administration. The new educational governance system emphasizes empowerment, autonomy, shared governance, social participation in policymaking, and administration.

Currently, various problems including excessive housing price, overburdened housing and serious speculation occur in the housing market of China, which are rooted in the commercial and market properties of housing that have been emphasized by the reform of housing system for many years, while this ignores the necessity, durability, high value, maintenance and appreciation of value, and other properties of housing. By means of analysis on different properties of housing, the thesis concludes that as housing has commercial property, the market-oriented reform of housing in China is correct, which must be carried on in the future. However, the reform of housing system shall also integrate other properties, so as to carry out it by enhancing the construction of housing security system, controlling the housing price, improving the supply structure of housing, restraining the investment demand of real estate, and encouraging graded expenditure in housing.

The economic reform in China, launched in the late 1970s, gradually promotes the free mobility of capital and labour between rural and urban areas, and between cities. The following housing market reform in the late 1990s thoroughly terminates the socialist allocation of housing and introduces market forces into the housing sector. Such institutional shifts have profound effects on the evolution of the Chinese interurban housing market. Yet, little is known about the spatial behaviour of house prices across cities in the post-reform era. How do the housing markets of different cities organise across space? What is the relationship between the house price dynamics of different cities? To answer these questions, this research performs economic and econometric analysis of the spatial dimension of the Chinese interurban housing market. In addition, this research also concerns the construction of a reliable house price index in the presence of spatial heterogeneity and dependence in the urban housing market of China. A reliable house price index is essential to the analysis of house price dynamic behaviour. However, owing to the data problem, this part is conducted based on the housing market of a Dutch city....

The goal of carbon peak and carbon neutralization has accelerated the pace of building a high percentage of renewable energy power systems. However, the uncertainty and volatility of renewable energy bring many challenges to the stable operation of electricity market. In the new context of power market reform, it is necessary to establish a better trading mechanism and price subsidy mechanism for renewable energy participation in the market. This paper analyzes the impact of renewable energy participation in electricity market on market operation, market equilibrium and bidding strategies of market players. Then, we propose the potential means to cope with the market risk of renewable energy, compare the market mechanisms and development policies of various countries, and summarize relevant studies on renewable energy participation in electricity market in countries around the world. Finally, the development of a high percentage of renewable energy participation in the electricity market of China is summarized and prospected.