Pioneering Economic Reform In China S Special Economic Zones

First published in 1999, this volume assessed the economic situation of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, China, including its trade connections with Hong Kong and foreign investments in the area. Designated as one of four Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as part of China’s domestic economic reform in 1979, Weiping Wu examines Shenzhen’s economic situation in the context of Hong Kong’s transition just two years prior to publication in 1997. Wu explores the developments in Shenzhen in local policy, labor costs, export performance, domestic linkages and complementarity with Hong Kong as a result of Hong Kong’s closer connection with the Shenzhen trade area. Shenzhen’s suitability can then be assessed in its role as an SEZ to experiment with and digest western technology and management techniques for inland China and as a buffer between China and the wider world.

This book examines China's economic development since 1949, with special emphasis on the economic transition of the past two decades and the role of special economic zones in this gradually evolving process. Various issues concerning the formation of the zones are explored. The performance of the zones and their impacts on the Chinese economy and the transitional path are assessed in aspects such as economic growth, structural changes, investment financing, employment and wages, technology transfers and learning, productivity gains, standards of living, trade expansion and the changing pattern of foreign investment. The implications of the special economic zones as a policy instrument to facilitate the process of economic transition and development, as well as the relevant policy issues, are examined.

A thorough examination of the establishment and development of China's Special Economic Zones (SEZ). These eight SEZs marked a major milestone in China's gradual market-oriented reform process, and the developmental fluctuations of these zones offers an in-depth understanding of the complexities and difficulties of reform. They also provide critical insight into China's thirty years of economic and social transformation. This book is a valuable and practical resource for governments, academics and policy advisors looking for an insight into and analysis of how the Special Economic Zone strategy played a key role in the transformation of China's economy.

The book provides insights into the development of special economic zones, which are an important factor in the political and economic reforms in China. It discusses a number of topics, including the history and the modernization of special economic zones in China, the contributions of special economic zones to China’s economic success and cultural change, as well as the new mission of special economic zones in the current economic-social context. Applying institutional economics and growth poles theory, it discusses the mechanism of China’s path driven by special economic zone practices. The book is a valuable resource for researchers interested in special economic zones, political and institutional reforms and economic transformation during China’s modernization.

This title was first published in 2001. The 1980s and 1990s were not only a period in which many developing countries adopted a series of major economic policy reforms, but also an era in which all socialist countries undertook varying degrees of radical reforms in their Soviet-style central-planning economic management systems. This volume examines the performance of China's industrial reform and open-door policy during the period of 1980-1997 through conducting a case study on one of its Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Xiamen. It adopts an analytical approach - examining Xiamen's performance from the perspective of three important interactions: between the country's general economic reform policies and the Special Policy implemented in the SEZs; between the Xiamen SEZ and the vast Chinese hinterland; and between foreign (especially Taiwanese) direct investment and local industrial transformation.

This book analyzes the benefits of and legal concerns in connection with the delegated legislation of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone as a prime example of experimental legislation in Chinese law. It offers solutions for improving the legal design of experimental regulations in Special Economic Zones by striking a balance between the pursuit of rapid socio-economic progress on the one hand, and the increasing need and will to govern by the rule of law on the other. The book offers a valuable guide for the academic community and legal practitioners, as well as students eager to gain insights into Chinese constitutional law and the conflict between legality and achieving reforms.

Investigating the rich architecture of post-Mao China and its broad cultural impact In the years following China's Cultural Revolution, architecture played an active role in the country's reintegration into the global economy and capitalist world. Looking at the ways in which political and social reform transformed Chinese architecture and how, in turn, architecture gave structure to the reforms, Cole Roskam underlines architecture's unique ability to shape space as well as behavior. Roskam traces how foreign influences like postmodernism began to permeate Chinese architectural discourse in the 1970s and 1980s and how figures such as Kevin Lynch, I. M. Pei, and John Portman became key forces in the introduction of Western educational ideologies and new modes of production. Offering important insights into architecture's relationship to the politics, economics, and diplomacy of post-Mao China, this unprecedented interdisciplinary study examines architecture's multivalent status as an art, science, and physical manifestation of cultural identity.

This book effectively challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the cluster-innovation relationship and has provided convincing evidence to show that prevailing theoretical models derived from Anglo-American experiences cannot be uncritically applied to Chinese reality. This book introduces a new theory of state-firm coordination to explain why and how some Chinese ICT firms have turned out to be more innovative than others. Its subjects involve economic geography, institutional economics, political science and regulation theory. Empirically, the book provides state-of-the-art findings to clarify many puzzles, confusion, and misunderstanding about the exact nature of China's ICT industry. It has essentially set a new baseline and made definitive contribution to knowledge production about China's economic geography. Methodologically, this book shows how original, critical, and independent research can be undertaken effectively and innovatively through cross-disciplinary theoretical interaction, deductive reasoning with hypotheses testing, combination of multiple means of data collection, integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, and structured presentation of research findings with extensive tabular, graphic, and cartographic illustrations.