Private Business And Economic Reform In China

Based on Party and state documents, Chinese newspaper reports and surveys, the Chinese and Western scholarly literature and the author's own fieldwork, this important study examines the private sector as a case study of the mechanics of reform in China, emphasizing the relationships among local officials, private businesses, and central policy. The book traces the growth of private business in China since 1978 and focuses on the interaction between private sector policy and other reforms and examines how this has affected China's political economy.

China's extraordinarily rapid economic growth since 1978, driven by market-oriented reforms, has set world records and continued unabated, despite predictions of an inevitable slowdown. In The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China?, renowned China scholar Nicholas R. Lardy argues that China's future growth prospects could be equally bright but are shadowed by the specter of resurgent state dominance, which has begun to diminish the vital role of the market and private firms in China's economy. Lardy's book arrives in timely fashion as a sequel to his pathbreaking Markets over Mao: The Rise of Private Business in China, published by PIIE in 2014. This book mobilizes new data to trace how President Xi Jinping has consistently championed state-owned or controlled enterprises, encouraging local political leaders and financial institutions to prop up ailing, underperforming companies that are a drag on China's potential. As with his previous book, Lardy's perspective departs from conventional wisdom, especially in its contention that China could achieve a high growth rate for the next two decades—if it reverses course and returns to the path of market-oriented reforms.

The Chinese economy is currently undergoing an institutional transformation as profound as the replacement of the people's communes with the household responsibility system in the early 1980s and the emergence of township and village enterprises as the main locus of economic dynamism in the second half of the 1980s. This third dramatic transformation is the emergence of the private sector as the main source of the country's economic growth. This book discusses the key issues in private sector development in China and includes: An overview of the development of private enterprises in China Analysis of the development and emerging paths toward private enterprise Examination of the business environment in which private enterprises operate How the legal environment has changed through economic reform Managerial capabilities and state-business interactions Suggestions of policy recommendations Perhaps controversially, the contributors suggest that private sector development is necessary to maintain the dynamism of the Chinese economy and create greater employment opportunities. China's Third Economic Transformation will appeal to scholars of Asian Economics and business who are interested in the rapid growth of the private sector in China.

Economic growth in China has transformed both politics and society. Old orthodoxies are painfully being eroded in the drive for reform while new social and cultural tensions are coming to light. It has been argued that the cycles of reform and retreat since 1978 which culminated in the Tiananmen Square tragedy were induced by the tensions of the reform process. It is clear that the way in which China handles these issues in the future will have major implications for the next phase of the country's development. The authors of this book analyse how reform has affected major groups in society such as urban workers, rural and urban cadres, the army, intellectuals and private entrepreneurs. They examine the interaction between old attitudes and new needs in such areas as education, policing and social control, rural administration and the status of women. What emerges is a broad insight into China's reform process which looks both at the enormous changes that have come about and at the problems to follow.

The transition from a planned to a market economy that began in China in the late 1970s unleashed an extraordinary series of changes, including increases in private enterprise, foreign investment, the standard of living, and corruption. Another result of economic reform has been the creation of a new class—China's new business elite. Margaret M. Pearson considers the impact that this new class is having on China's politics. She concludes that, contrary to the assumptions of Westerners, these groups are not at the forefront of the emergence of a civil society; rather, they are part of a system shaped deliberately by the Chinese state to ensure that economic development will not lead to democratization.

The re-emergence of private enterprises is one of the most important factors in China's recent economic development. They will play a key role in maintaining China's high growth rate and honouring its commitments to the WTO. Despite this they face obstacles to growth, including borrowing restrictions, high taxes, ineffective legal protection and lack of technical and information support. The authors in this book discuss these obstacles and propose measures for improving private enterprise development. They consider how private enterprises can help China mitigate its macroeconomic problems, such as unemployment, income inequality, financial disintermediation and cyclical boom and bust. Finally they examine the lessons to be learnt from other countries in promoting privatization.

During the past 30 years, China has undergone extensive economic reform, replacing the government’s administration of enterprises with increasing levels of market-oriented enterprise autonomy. At the heart of the reform are changes in the employment relationship, where state control has been superceded by market relationships. These reforms have had far-reaching implications for many aspects of everyday life in Chinese society. This book appraises the impact of the economic reforms on the employment relationship and, in turn, examines the effects on individual workers and their families, including salaries, working conditions and satisfaction, job security and disparities based on location, gender, age, skill, position and migrant status. In particular, it focuses on how changes in the employment relationship have affected the livelihood strategies of households. It explores the changing human resource management practices and employment relations in different types of enterprises: including State-Owned Enterprises, Foreign-Owned Enterprises and Domestic Private Enterprises; throughout different industries, focusing especially on textiles, clothing and footwear and the electronics industry; and in different regions and cities within China (Beijing, Haerbin, Lanzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Kunming). Overall, this book provides a detailed account of the everyday implications of economic reform for individuals and families in China.

The authors have produced an outstanding book on economic reforms in China and India. . . This book is a wealth of information on this crucial issue, thus filling this important gap in the literature on economic reform, and also adding more knowledge to the literature on the history of economic development processes in China and India. . . [this book] will be of interest to both scholars of the economic reforms and those more generally interested in the social political changes occurring there. Tulus Tambunan, Journal of Asian Business Economists Chai and Roy have produced a well-written, properly documented study of the comparative development of India and China over the last 50 years. . . The book will be useful to graduate students in Asian studies and economic development. Policy makers in other developing countries can also benefit from this account of the experiences of two major emerging economies under different economic and political systems. Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. J.S. Uppal, Choice Recent acceleration of the Indian economic growth rate from 6 to 8 per cent has sparked worldwide speculation that India is about to catch up with China and become another Asian miracle economy. Economic Reform in China and India examines this prospect, reviewing the development strategies pursued by the two countries over the last 50 years in general and exploring recently introduced reform measures in particular. The culmination of many years of research by specialists in these economies, this book assesses the performance of China and India at both macro and sectoral levels (including economic, social, political and environmental aspects). It illustrates the reasons why China has outperformed India in the past and identifies the obstacles that India will face in its attempts to catch up with China. Providing solutions for China and India that can be applied to other developing countries, this book will be invaluable for researchers, academics and students focussing on economic development and Asian studies. It will also receive much attention from investors and government analysts interested in the strategic implications of the emergence of the two Asian economic giants.