Party-Management Relations in Chinese Industries: Some Political Dimensions of Economic Reform

Abstract

Enterprise Party–management relations lie at the intersection of two major reform efforts in present-day China–one aimed at decentralizing economic power through the “invigoration” of large and medium-scale industries, the other aimed at deconcentrating political power through the separation of Party from administration. Common to both reform efforts and critical to each is the area of Party–management relations. As an important issue in enterprise reform, on the one hand, it is central to the Chinese leadership's current drive to restructure the urban economy and, indeed, the entire national economy.1 On the other hand, as a crucial test of the leadership's ability to render the Communist Party more authoritative but less intrusive in day-to-day affairs, it is also central to current political reforms. While it might be too much to claim that the issue of Party–management relations is the key link in the leadership's overall modernization drive, unquestionably the failure to resolve the issue will seriously cripple its economic and political reform efforts.