Chinese Capitalism Research Articles

Subsistence Crises, Managerial Corruption and Labour Protests in China

Subsistence Crises, Managerial Corruption and Labour Protests in China

Distant Thunder: The Regional Economies of Southwest China and the Impact of the Great Depression

A study of the impact of the 1930s World Depression on Southwest China intersects with two major controversies in modern Chinese economic history. First, there is still substantial disagreement over the severity of the impact of the Depression on China. The ‘traditional’ interpretation inside China has focused on the ‘bankruptcy’ of the economy in the 1930s (of which the Depression was one but not the only cause). While many aspects of the ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘stagnation’ theses have more recently been discarded or modified by Chinese scholars, recognition is still made of the gravity of the crisis of the 1930s: China's leading historian of its modern economy, Wu Chengming, writes in the third volume of the History of Chinese Capitalism: ‘The economic crisis of 1932–1935 was, with the exception of the wars of invasion launched by foreign countries, the single most severe blow to the Chinese economy’.

Features of Capitalism and the Restructuring of Ruling Classes in China

The questions that will be discussed in this paper are the
 following: Is it possible to identify capitalist classes, or a
 Chinese bourgeoisie (as a faceted mixture of diverse capitalist
 groups or classes) at the end of the 1990s? Are capitalist classes
 becoming an integral part of a "ruling class' or a collective body
 of 'ruling classes'? Is 'bureaucratic capitalism' a proper term of
 Chinese capitalism?
 This is an ambitious task: It involves complex and contested
 concepts, that of 'class', 'capitalist class' and 'ruling class' and it
 tries to relate them to a very complicated historical process
 actually taking place in the largest country in the world. However,
 the questions involved are, or should be, of the greatest
 interest to the Chinese people and social scientists. In the paper
 I try to summarize some literature on the subject and to interpret
 some empirical findings from a class-theoretical perspective
 in the hope of stimulating further studies and debates.
 The author argues that the actual modernization of the
 Chinese economy is producing new economic elites which will
 constitute a Chinese 'bourgeoisie' among which state and party
 cadres are in the lead. The specific state-led capitalism should
 be properly labelled 'bureaucratic capitalism'.

An Encounter with a Face of Chinese Capitalism

An Encounter with a Face of Chinese Capitalism

Chinese capitalism: Cultures, the Southeast Asian region and economic globalisation

Globalisation is often presumed to be an economically, socially and culturally homogenising force. The deterioration of capitalism's major rival in the early 1990s has paved the way for a truly global economy in which all participants increasingly operate under the general logic of capitalism-that is, a market-orientated system of production and exchange, private ownership and a flexible labour market predicated upon self-interest. Yet, while the pressures of globalisation are obviously formidable and increasingly felt by all, economic societies remain diverse and have responded to these pressures in unique ways. This article makes its case for the continued diversity of capitalism by emphasising the unique mode of economic organisation that has emerged in Southeast Asia; one rooted in the demands of globalisation as well as in the cultural foundations of the Overseas Chinese. The evolution of ethnic-Chinese business networks, which define Southeast Asia's political economy, constitutes a unique reaction to the pressures of globalisation and has laid the basis for a distinct articulation of capitalism in the region.

The Riddle of Malaysian Capitalism: Rent-Seekers or Real Capitalists?

TablesFiguresAbbreviationsPrefaceIntroductionPART I - THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: STATE AND CAPITAL TO 1990Malaysian political economy: an overviewThe state and the expansion of Malay ownershipPART II - MALAY CAPITALISTS: STATE, PARTY, POLITICAL AND PRIVATEThe new Malay state: catalyst for capitalism or cronyism?The party: UMNO's role in the development of Malay capitalismPolitical capitalists: relations between party capital and private Malay capitalPrivate Malay capital: rentiers, transitional groups and entrepreneursPART III - CHINESE CAPITALISTS: PARIAHS OR ENTREPRENEURS?MPHB: the failure of the Chinese 'institutional' approachChinese business groups: new wealthChinese business groups: old wealthConclusionSelected interviewsNotesBibliographyIndex

The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring: An Iranian Family in China (review)

Reviewed by: The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring: An Iranian Family in China Albert Welter (bio) Antonino Forte . The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring: An Iranian Family in China. Occasional Papers 6. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1995. x, 152 pp. Paperback, ISBN 4-900793-08-6. The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring concerns the figure of An Shigao, the Parthian crown prince who renounced his throne to become a monk, arriving in A.D. 148 in the Chinese capital of Luoyang, where he became the most important translator of Buddhist texts in the early period of their diffusion in China. It also concerns An Shigao's legacy, but not as this is usually understood. The "legacy" here centers on the accomplishments of An Shigao's descendants in Chinese history through the mid-Tang dynasty. If the volume is to be judged according to the author's stated aim, namely to raise questions without pretending to solve any problems (p. ix), then it is a resounding success. The questions raised are both [End Page 434] large and small, with implications for our overall understanding of Chinese history and for the particulars upon which this understanding is based. While the implications of this study for Chinese historians and students of Chinese Buddhism are immense, Forte is cautious when assessing the accomplishments of the current monograph. The subject of An Shigao has long been of interest to the author, who first published an article (in Italian) on An Shigao in 1968. Pressed by other scholarly concerns, Forte was unable to return to the subject until recently, when he came across additional records dealing with An Shigao and proceeded at the urging of the Japanese scholar Makita Tairyô, to whom the volume is dedicated. The book itself is a revised and enlarged version of a seminar presentation delivered at the Italian School of East Asian Studies in Kyoto in 1991, and of an abstract version presented in Japanese a few days later at the forty-second meeting of the Bukkyôshi gakkai (Society for the History of Buddhism) held at Bukkyô University in Kyoto. The latter resulted in a published version of the study in the Society's journal (Bukkyôshigaku kenkyû) in 1992, which, because of time constraints, resulted in a shorter, provisional version that the author deemed unsatisfactory. Forte continues to be modest about the state of the current version and states that he feels "somewhat overwhelmed by the complexity of the problems being raised" (p. ix). Readers can only sympathize. Hopefully, however, those who read this volume will begin to adjust their antenna to incorporate the implications of these problems for their own investigations. The outline of the book's contents may be summarized as follows. The Introduction (pp. 1-12) provides an overview of the three chapters that follow, introducing the main figures, topics, and questions to be addressed, as well as the types of sources to be consulted. Chapter 1 (pp. 13-39) considers evidence regarding An Shigao from literary sources, divided into three groups: biographies, genealogies, and rhyme dictionaries. Chapter 2 (pp. 41-63) deals with epigraphical material, namely the stele inscriptions of three prominent An family members active in the seventh and early eighth centuries. Chapter 3 (pp. 65-90) offers some tentative remarks on the early Buddhist sources on the monk An Shigao and the context in which he operated. The Conclusion (pp. 91-93) raises some additional general considerations resulting from the study. In addition, there are two appendixes on specific matters arising from the study. Appendix A (pp. 95-99) is titled "An Early Eighth Century Edict Ordering the Repatriation of Hostages." Appendix B (pp. 100-107) concerns "The Origin of An Lushan's Family Name An." Also included are a "Genealogical Chart of An Shigao's Family" (p. 109), listing known members from the late second through the eighth centuries, a Bibliography (pp. 111-134), and an Index (pp. 135-152). The questions addressed in the study are essentially three: (1) the identification of the Iranian prince An Shigao, (2) the role played in Chinese society and [End Page 435] history by the family who claimed An...

The three faces of capitalism and the Asian crisis

The paper takes a globalizing world, characterized by increasing flows between multiple and diverse centers, as the context for the Asian crisis. It seeks to identify problems of articulation between different ways of integrating capitalist operations, conceptualized in a tripartite schema of hierarchical plan, anonymous market, and horizontal networks. Each of the three has different requirements for effective functioning, different strengths and weaknesses, and they are all likely to degenerate or collapse in different ways. All three, in changing proportions, contributed to Asia's so-called economic miracle, but although there is everywhere co-existence and compromise between them, the synergy is unstable. The authors argue that a rapid change in the balance, caused by increasing flows of hot money, produced a disjuncture at the interface and an escalating crisis. The paper focuses in particular on the personalized networks of diaspora Chinese capitalism, and concludes with some suggestions and preliminary evidence about their prospects in the aftermath of the crisis.

Rural Capitalists in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia: Three Cases, Two Debates, One Analysis?

There are divergent explanations but common empirical themes in the study of rural entrepreneurship in South and Southeast Asia. Most studies are based on empirical data collection in one country and present their data within an analytical framework that is specific to the particular Asian sub-region concerned. Studies on the entrepreneurial class in South Asia tend to focus on the structural aspects of entrepreneurial behaviour, while studies on the entrepreneurial class in Southeast Asia tend to focus on the cultural aspects of their behaviour. By comparing the findings of field-work among Hindu, Muslim, and Chinese rural capitalists in India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, this paper argues that there is sufficient common ground in the type of empirical subject studied for a unified, comparative framework to be developed which will give us a better understanding into the emergence of the entrepreneurial class in both South and Southeast Asia.

Chinese philosophy and western capitalism

It is commonly supposed that people of Asia, particularly the ethnic Chinese, subscribe to values which are not conducive to economic progress. The gap between the capitalist West and Asia is often attributed to the ‘cultural’ factor. Behind such perception is the supposition that capitalism is wholly a product of the West, alien to Asia and cannot be successfully embraced without doing violence to its cultural traditions. Against this position, I argue that classical capitalism is perfectly compatible with the key elements of Chinese philosophy. Whether or not there is anything in the suggestion of some historians that Quesnay borrowed from Confucianism, I argue that his economic doctrine could have developed from the fundamentals of Chinese philosophy. If I am right, the economic gap between the West and Asia has to be explained in terms other than the ‘cultural’ factor, such as, perhaps, colonialism and post‐colonialist ideologies.

Under siegs? Economic globalization and Chinese business in Southeast Asia

To some observeers, economic globalization has led to the edn of thenation state dn geopgrphy. It assumed that globaliszation erodes nationa differeces adn geographlical heterogeneity. This globalization discourse has a life of its own because it shapes neoliberal thought in econoomics and politics. In thsi paper, I attempt to challenge this ‘stron globalization’ reading of the global political economy. I argue that, istead of leading to a ‘boderless’ world, eocnomic globalization continues to reinforce national deversity in the face ofglobal capitalism. This argument is particularly relvenat to the recent economic crissi in Southeast Asia where Chines business serves as a domnant mode o Capitalism. Through two case studies of Chinese capitalism, I argue that globaliszation is a higl contested process. On teh one hand, it poses a serious threat to the practice adn social organization of Chinese capitalism in southeast Asia. The recent collpase of Peregrine Investment Holdings is a good example of how globlaization has put Chinese business unde siege. On the other hand, globalization presents opportunties for such social institutions as Chinese business firms to take advantage. The latest move of the Malaysian governmetn to relax is twenty-sevn-year old bumiputra equity ownership restrictions to allow more equity ownership of local companies by non-Malyas adn foregners examiplfiew both pragmatic responseof nation states to globalization adn the unintended opportunites opened to Chiese capitalists. Taken together, this paper aurgues for a historically adngeographically contingent reading of the impact adn processes of economic globalization. It also suggests some implications for the future of Chinese capitalism in southeast Asia under globalization.

Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Southeast Asia and Central Europe

Acknowledgments Part One. Similarities and Disparities: an Introduction to the Comparison of Entrereneurial Minorities 1. Conflicting Identities and the Dangers of Communalism / Daniel Chirot 2. Entrepreneurial Minorities, Nationalism, and the State / Anthony Reid Part Two. Identity, Choice, and the Reaction to among Chinese and Jews 3. Imagined Uncommunity: the Lookjin Middle Class and Thai Official Nationalism / Kasian Tejapira 4. Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility? How Reasonable was Anti-Semitism in Vienna, 1880-1939? / Steven Beller 5. Jewish Entrepreneurship and Identity under Capitalism and Socialism in Central Europe: The Unresolved Dilemmas of Hungarian Jewry / Victor Karady 6. Anti-Sinicism and Chinese Identity Options in the Philippines / Edgar Wickberg Part Three. The Modernization of Ethnic Perceptions and Conflicts 7. Anti-Sinicism in Java's New Order / Takashi Shiraishi 8. Middleman Minorities and Blood: Is There a Natural Economy of the Ritual Murder Accusation in Europe? / Hillel J. Kieval Part Four. Chinese Businesses in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Are There Parallels? 9. A Specific Idiom of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia: Sino-Malaysian Capital Accumulation in the Face of State Hostility / K. S. Jomo 10. Ethnicity and Capitalist Development: The Changing Role of the Chinese in Thailand / Gary G. Hamilton and Tony Waters 11. Strengths and Weaknesses of Minority Status for Southeast Asian Chinese at a TIme of Economic Growth and liberalization / Linda Y. C. Lim and L. A. Peter Gosling List of ContributorsIndex

Beijing media join attack on air pollution

beijing The Chinese capital, one of the world's most polluted cities, is to clean up its air following moves to release data on air pollution levels.

THE CHINESE COMMUNITY AND THE GROWTH OF ETHNOCENTRIC CAPITALISM IN MALAYSIA

The genesis and growth of Chinese capitalism in Malaysia had to be analysed with reference to religiosity and its practices among the Chinese community outside China. Chinese religion particularly Confucius and Buddhist, discourage material acquisition.

Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City

Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City

Globalization and Transnational Migration

This article utilizes the perspective of transnationalism to explain Chinese capitalist migration from the Asian Pacific to Canada in the context of globalization. It is argued that transnationalism, and particularly the process of transmigration, provides a new and useful way of theorizing the international migration of capitalists. The focus is on Chinese migrants who enter Canada under the auspices of the Canadian Business Immigration Program as investors and entrepreneurs. The article presents two levels of analysis in theorizing this transnational migration. At the macro level, this migration is explained in the context of global capitalism and capital accumulation. Statistical data are presented illustrating the participation of Chinese from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the programme. These data include a trend analysis of the number of transmigrants and the amount of capital brought to Canada. At the micro level, some transnational social fields are examined utilizing survey research data from interviews with 284 Chinese business migrants who have set up a residence and a business in the city of Vancouver in Canada. More specifically, preliminary evidence of transnational social fields is presented and includes: family and personal social fields, ethnic social fields and business fields.

Critical reflections on “Chinese capitalism” as paradigm

A culturally shaped Chinese capitalism has received much attention over the last decade, accompanied by a renewed interest in Confucianism as the marker for Chinese culture. This essay argues against culturalist explanations of the successful economic development of Chinese (and more generally, East Asian) societies. The flourishing of capitalism in these societies, it argues instead, is best understood with reference to developments within capitalism globally. Rather than a source of capitalist development, a Chinese culture conceived homogeneously provides an ideological alibi to new developments within capitalism, as well as a means to check the disruptive effects of capitalist development in Chinese societies. An insistence on Chineseness conceived culturally disguises, and seeks to contain, the social and cultural dispersal of Chinese populations, the so‐called Chinese diaspora.

‘A momentary glow of fraternity’: Narratives of Chinese nationalism and capitalism

This essay discusses how Chinese culture is variously reified and deployed in two competing discursive systems: the modernist imaginary of the nation‐state ‐ emphasizing essentialism, territoriality, and fixity‐in tension with the modernist imagining of entre‐prenurial capitalism ‐ celebrating hybridity, deterritorialization, and fluidity. These alternative visions of modernity are to a large extent conditioned by geopolitics and the dynamism of global capitalism in the Asia‐Pacific. Regimes in China and Singapore have deployed “Confucian” values in attempts to discipline their societies against the lures of transnational capitalism based on fraternal Chinese networks ("Greater China"). Both visions of Chinese modernitites depend on self‐orientalizing strategies that critique “Western” values like individualism and human rights. These narratives intersect with voices claiming an “Asian renaissance” and “the Asian Way” in global capitalism, thus constituting a counter‐hegemony to American domination of the Asia‐Pacific.

Blood, Thicker than Water: Interpersonal Relations and Taiwanese Investment in Southern China

Transnational capitals have not been as footloose as theorists of a new international division of labor have proposed. Taiwanese direct investment in southern China represents a case where transnational capital flows are shaped by cultural and institutional conditions. The effectiveness of Taiwanese direct investment in southern China is achieved through the interpersonal networks established between Taiwanese investors and local Chinese officials. Such networks, in turn, are based on two major conditions. First, the newly gained economic autonomy of local governments in southern China, as well as the Chinese bureaucratic tradition of flexible interpretation and implementation of laws. Such an institutional context provided the space for the local state in China to bypass the scrutiny of the central state and to link up with the world economy directly through overseas Chinese capitals. Second, cultural and linguistic affinity between the Taiwanese investors and local Chinese officials have provided the tools for establishing interpersonal networks between Taiwanese investors and Chinese local officials through the principle of gift exchange.

Sit, Victor F. S., "Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City" (Book Review)

Sit, Victor F. S., "Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City" (Book Review)