Capitalists In Communist China

How China Became Capitalist details the extraordinary, and often unanticipated, journey that China has taken over the past thirty five years in transforming itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an indomitable economic force in the international arena. The authors revitalise the debate around the rise of the Chinese economy through the use of primary sources, persuasively arguing that the reforms implemented by the Chinese leaders did not represent a concerted attempt to create a capitalist economy, and that it was 'marginal revolutions' that introduced the market and entrepreneurship back to China. Lessons from the West were guided by the traditional Chinese principle of 'seeking truth from facts'. By turning to capitalism, China re-embraced her own cultural roots. How China Became Capitalist challenges received wisdom about the future of the Chinese economy, warning that while China has enormous potential for further growth, the future is clouded by the government's monopoly of ideas and power. Coase and Wang argue that the development of a market for ideas which has a long and revered tradition in China would be integral in bringing about the Chinese dream of social harmony.

The Communist Road to Capitalism explores how a dynamic of social struggles from below followed by countermeasures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has pushed the historical evolution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1949. Under socialism until the mid-1970s, during the ensuing transition until the mid-1990s, and in the capitalist period since, the CCP regime responded to the struggles of workers, peasants, migrants, and women* with a mix of repression, concession, cooptation, and reform. Ralf Ruckus shows that this dynamic took the country into a new phase each time—and eventually all the way from socialism to capitalism: in the 1950s, labor struggles and the Hundred Flowers Movement were followed by the regime’s Great Leap Forward; in the 1960s, the Cultural Revolution led to the CCP’s failed attempt to revitalize socialism; in the 1970s, social unrest and movements for a democratic socialism made room for the regime’s Reform and Opening policies; in the late 1980s, the Tian’anmen Square uprising triggered more radical reforms; in the 1990s, peasant and state worker unrest could not stop the capitalist restructuring; and in the 2000s, migrant worker struggles led to concessions, tightened repression, and the regime’s global capitalist expansion strategy in the 2010s. The Communist Road to Capitalism breaks with established orthodoxies about the PRC’s socialist “successes” and myths on its later rise as an economic power. It combines a historiography of workers’, peasants’, migrants’, and women*’s struggles with a searing critique of exploitation, authoritarian state power and gender discrimination under socialism and capitalism. Drawing lessons from PRC history, Ralf Ruckus finally outlines political aims and methods for the left that avoid past mistakes and allow to fight on for a society free of all forms of exploitation and oppression.

How can capitalists' motivations during a Communist revolution be reliably documented and fully understood? Up to now, the answer to this question has generally eluded scholars who, for lack of nonofficial sources, have fallen back on Communist governments' official explanations. But the essays in this volume confirm that, at least in the case of the Communist revolution in China, it is finally possible to make new and fresh interpretations. By focusing closely on individuals and probing deeply into their thinking and experience, the authors of these essays have discovered a wide range of reasons for why Chinese capitalists did or did not choose to live and work under communism. The contributors to this volume have all concentrated on the dilemma for capitalists in China's Communist revolution. But their approach to their subject through archival research and rigorous analysis may also serve as a guide for future thinking about a variety of other historical figures. This approach is well worth adopting to explain how any members of society (not only capitalists) have resolved comparable dilemmas in all revolutions--the ones in China, Russia, Vietnam, Cuba, or anywhere else.

For Helen's family, the 1920s were turbulent but full of hope. A revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty. China entered the "Golden Age of Capitalism." Helen's uncle founded a bank when he and Helen's father were in their thirties. They worked hard and expanded the business. After fifteen years, it became one of China's largest private banks... Helen and her siblings received a Western education in their teenage years. She met her love, George, while studying in the wartime college. George and his brothers pursued the idea of "industry saving China." They studied science and technology in the U.S. and returned to China... After 1949, they suffered abuse in various "movements." ... When Mao's Cultural Revolution began in 1966, Helen's children were in high school. They witnessed chaos and violence. The Communists sent them to remote farms... At first, the reforms in China inspired Helen's children. They went overseas in the 1980s and tried to do their part to change China. Yet China remained a country ruled by the Communists... Maggie Zheng is the third-generation member of the family described in this memoir. In 1991, she graduated from the UW-Madison with a PhD in science. Maggie was born in 1949. That was the same year the Communists took over mainland China. When she grew up, Maggie witnessed social changes in China. The Communists sent her to work on farms for nine years after high school. Maggie graduated from college after Mao died. Coming to the U.S. in the 1980s, she studied and worked here. Maggie went to Shanghai to set up a production facility for repairing gas turbine blades in 2004. She came back to the United States in 2019. Reviewed by Linda, a former Dartmouth College composition consultant (ABT) ... I believe yours is a very important book for young people in particular, as they need to read more stories like yours about families who actually lived history. ... I think your book should definitely gain readership and impress many... Reviewed by Jack, an Amazon reader Many books on China either read like a scroll of ideological bullet points or a hitchhiker's guide to scenic sights and hidden wonders. This book affords the reader no such luxury and immediately rolls into the life of a family that is easily relatable surviving China's most tumultuous years. ...as the author's family moves back and forth between China and the U.S. through the decades, the book became an excellent reflection of the cross-cultural experience, with observations that can only be made from a perspective that can house the contradictory roles of native and foreigner at the same time. This was particularly evident in the later chapters. Reviewed by Jitendra, a NetGalley reviewer Before reading this book, I never knew that China was once a capitalist state, which was eventually taken over by the Communists in 1949. In addition, what tactics the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) used - ... The book talks a lot about Shanghai. Shanghai was a city where people from various countries could freely come and do business before the 1940s. ... I also found that Shanghai accommodated around 25K JEWs who were persecuted in Europe, and, from Shanghai, they moved to Palestine, US and other safe places... Reviewed by Linda, a former Dartmouth College composition consultant (ABT) Reviewed by Linda, a former Dartmouth College composition consultant (ABT) ... I believe yours is a very important book for young people in particular, as they need to read more stories like yours about families who actually lived history. ... I think your book should definitely gain readership and impress many... Reviewed by Jack, an Amazon reader Many books on China either read like a scroll of ideological bullet points or a hitchhiker's guide to scenic sights and hidden wonders. This book affords the reader no such luxury and immediately rolls into the life of a family that is easily relatable surviving China's most tumultuous years. ...as the author's family moves back and forth between China and the U.S. through the decades, the book became an excellent reflection of the cross-cultural experience, with observations that can only be made from a perspective that can house the contradictory roles of native and foreigner at the same time. This was particularly evident in the later chapters. Reviewed by Jitendra, a NetGalley reviewer Before reading this book, I never knew that China was once a capitalist state, which was eventually taken over by the Communists in 1949. In addition, what tactics the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) used - ... The book talks a lot about Shanghai. Shanghai was a city where people from various countries could freely come and do business before the 1940s. ... I also found that Shanghai accommodated around 25K JEWs who were persecuted in Europe, and, from Shanghai, they moved to Palestine, US and other safe places...

The Chinese Communist Party and China’s Capitalist Revolution examines issues of political change and development in China. In the last 30 years China has experienced a profound political transformation and a degree of political progress but these are largely mired in the assumption that the free market is inherently incompatible with communism, and the perceived lack of political reforms in China. Indeed, there has not been much in the sense of democratization, multi-party competition, freedom of speech and association, but as this book demonstrates, political development is not limited to these factors. Based on extensive empirical investigations of the impact of the market on the communist party, with a particular focus on its grassroots organisations, this book finds that the Chinese communist party is undergoing profound changes in a host of important areas. By analyzing the impact of China’s socioeconomic transformation on the CCP and the adaptations of the Party to the new environment the book takes stock of the nature and dynamics of political change underway in China. The author concludes that the Chinese communist party we knew no longer exists—it is evolving into something quite different, which must have political implications for both China and the rest of the world. Professor Lance L. P. Gore is a political scientist specializing in contemporary Chinese politics at The East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

Since 1949, Chinese capitalists have experienced some dramatic shifts in their political and economic life. Keming Yang examines what such changes tell us about China's current political situation and future political development, making use of both historical and current interdisciplinary evidence.

China's rise within global society and politics has brought it into the spotlight - for social scientists, the country's long and dramatic transformations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries make it an ideal case study for research on political and economic development and social changes. China's size, integration and dynamism are impacting on the functioning of the capitalist world system. This book offers a non-conventional analysis of the possible outcomes from China's transformation and provides a dialectical understanding of the complexities and underlying dynamics brought about by the rise of modern-day China. The theoretical and methodological approaches will prove useful for students and researchers of development studies and international relations.