Labor Politics, Finance, and Chinese State Capitalism

Abstract

Satya Gabriel expands and deepens his analysis of the modernist vision in China through an analysis of Chinese finance and its relationship to state capitalism. Financial fragility developed in the context of the transition from state feudalism to state capitalism. Cumulative causation and Keynesian uncertainty have meant that the main processes ensuring social stability, especially the state’s ability to foster long-term capital accumulation, have also led to moral hazard and agency problems, especially in finance. Whether militant labor organizations can form a national movement as inward capital mobility lowers the wall between home and work remains an open question. Gabriel also does not address China’s subordinate position in East Asian and Pacific capital circuits. He does lay bare the role of finance in the development of the Chinese modernist model in a unique and convincing manner.