The Janus Face of Business Associations in China: Socialist Corporatism in Foreign Enterprises

Abstract

Post-Mao society has seen a revitalization of the role of 'associations' (xiehu), including in the foreign sector of the economy. Extensive, if incomplete, decentalization of the economy and the concomitant strengthening of economic actors during the last decade and a half have allowed this limited, Chinese-style associational life to emerge. There are signs such as the labelling of associations as 'non-governmental' (minjian) that these groups differ markedly from their 'mass organization' counterparts of the Maoist era, which generally were seen as 'transmission belts' of the state, and wholly dominated by state interests.' But do post-Mao associations truly and autonomously promote the interests of their members and reflect, as some have suggested, the emergence of pluralism or even 'civil society' in China?2 Altematively, do associations remain tightly controlled by the state, having undergone a mere facelift? Or do associations simultaneously exhibit elements of both state-domination and autonomy? Based on an examination of the relationship between the government and associations in one economic sector the foreign capital-invested industrial