Comment: Primitive accumulation in modern China

Abstract

Michael Webber has made a significant contribution by surveying the history ofprimitive accumulation in China from the early 1980s to the mid 2000s.Conceptualizing primitive accumulation as the process through which capitalistproduction emerges from pre-existing condition of work, Webber identifies threeprincipal means of primitive accumulation in China, namely: the transformation ofstate and collective enterprises into capital, the peasants’ loss of land throughvarious forms of dispossession, and the voluntary migration of peasants fromagricultural to industrial pursuits. Webber further points out that the state has beenclosely involved in the entire process, and that the Chinese primitive accumulationprocess is complex, particular and localized––a mix of dispossession for economicreasons, dispossession for other reasons, and market-led processes.I do not dispute with Webber’s empirical findings. In fact, I find the informationwell-documented and Webber’s observation on them insightful. However, althoughWebber’s paper is strong in describing the unique feature of Chinese primitiveaccumulation process, it is relatively weak in explanation in explaining howChinese primitive accumulation emerged, why it took such a unique form (that isdifferent from all the previous primitive accumulation processes in Europe and inthe South), and what the implication is of this mode of primitive accumulation forChinese development.In the following sections I will provide a somewhat different historicalinterpretation of the primitive accumulation process in China. First, I will presentthe historical context through which primitive accumulation emerged in China.Then I will show why such historical context helps us understand the uniquefeatures of Chinese primitive accumulation. After that, I will discuss two issues thatWebber fails to raise in his paper: (1) when does the primitive accumulation processcome to an end in China? It is important to raise this ending question because