Chinese Economic Success Research Articles

How ‘making the world in its own liberal image’ made the West less liberal

Abstract How did the attempt to make the world more liberal end up making the West less liberal? Following the end of the Cold War the US tried to promote liberalism in various parts of the world. This promotion took place under the liberal belief in its universality. A few of these attempts succeeded, most notably the integration of China into the global economy. Many other liberalizing endeavours failed, notably democracy-promotion in China, Russia and the Middle East. Yet, both the successes and the failures resulted in the rise of illiberal elements in the West as reflected in Brexit and Trumpism. The article shows how the outcomes of the attempts at liberalization—both the failures and the successes—generated these populist forces. The Chinese economic success took place at least partly because of the US-led integration of China into the international order. Yet, this success produced adverse economic effects in the West. Such outcomes led to the rise of economic populism. The American liberal interventions in the Middle East affected the rise of terrorism and of Muslim migration to the West. These developments influenced the rise of cultural populism in the West, which advances resentment of foreigners, migrants and minorities.

Chinism and the Future of the World

The huge leap forward made by the Chinese economy over the past four decades as a result of market reforms and openness to the world is awe-inspiring for some and anxiety-inducing for others. Questions arise as to whether the foundations of Chinese economic success are sustainable and whether economic growth will be followed by political expansion. China makes great use of globalization and is therefore interested in its continuation. At the same time, it wants to give globalization new features, specific Chinese characteristics. This is met with the reluctance of the current global hegemon, the United States, even more so as fears arise that China may promote abroad its original political and economic system—Chinism. However, the world is still big enough to accommodate all of our systems. Potentially, not necessarily. What we need to make it happen is a proper policy, which, in the future, must also involve its better coordination at a supranational level.

The Silent Gatekeeper: Authoritarianism and Civil Society in China

This paper examines the emergence of civil society in China under the authoritarian system in the last thirty years. It seeks to explore the ways in which an initial, traditional notion of civil society has altered in the context of China, as well as the respective challenges faced by both the organizations and the government in carrying out their goals and governance. The rapid rise of market capitalism, globalization and Chinese economic success in the last forty years to present day has made room for the rise of non-governmental organizations as well as social mobilization and engagement from citizens. This paper suggests that China has been able to accept the emergence of civil society, however, despite these developments, the government has been able to sufficiently suppress civil society from carrying out any objectives of transparency, social justice and accountability. It surveys the history of civil society within the authoritarian state, analyzes the specific government-NGO relations between the Chinese Communist Party and civil society organizations, and reflects upon the implications of the current legal and political framework that Chinese civil society must operate under.

Understanding China’s Economic Success: “Embeddedness” with Chinese Characteristics

<p class="1Body">This study attempts to provide a framework for understanding the role of the “embeddedness” in China’s economic success reflected by a unique embedded integration of state-market-society relations. “Embeddedness with Chinese characteristics” is the central concept of this study for analyzing how cultural and political uniqueness influences economic activities and shapes distinctive institutional forms. In order to grasp the factors behind the Chinese economic success, it is important to understand how the disembedded forces of marketization and commodification were balanced by the embedded forces of socio-cultural and political structures. These historically and culturally shaped structures, such as the active role of the state and local governments, the variety of forms of property and business ownership, the traditional culture of clientele-based social relations, etc., provide rich empirical context to explain and analyze the “embedded” hegemony in transitional China. The first part of the this paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding socio-cultural and political embeddedness in China and the second part analyzes some characteristics of the state-market-society embedded process during its economic development in the past decades. The conclusion is that China’s economic reform and success manifest a long and innovative grinding-in process of state-market-society relations.</p>

Chinese Foreign Policy in a Global Perspective : A Responsible Reformer “Striving For Achievement”

During the last four decades, China has moved from being an isolated country separated from the international community to having become one of the world’s major powers. It is vital to understand what is guiding Chinese foreign policy, why this is so, and not least what kind of power China is and will be in the future. This article analyses the vital elements and thinking that guides Chinese foreign policy, its priorities and decision making process. It is found that China's foreign policy is embedded in domestic issues. The foremost foreign policy objective is domestic political stability, which in turn is a necessity for the survival of one-party rule. Both are dependent on a combination of two key factors: continuing domestic economic growth and nationalism. The foreign policy is also closely linked to the Chinese self-perception, both its self-superiority/self-inferiority dualism and its multitude of confusing (overlapping) identities about what China is and should be. A key turning year is 2008 when the financial crisis severely affected the United States and Europe at a time of Chinese economic success, which gave China confidence to pursue a more active and aggressive/assertive stance on the international stage. It is concluded that China under Xi Jinping will not be a status que power accepting the world as it is, but nor are we to expect China to become a revisionist power aiming to remodel the global order. China is what can best be described as a responsible reformer striving for achievements.

Dress for Success: A Journey from Past to Present Among Tibetans

This article examines the problem of what to wear among Tibetans in Qinghai, China. Starting with recent media coverage, which reported how Tibetan traditional attire is becoming a powerful political statement, I will attempt to illustrate how the dramatic transformations in the way Tibetans dress are not a new phenomenon but an ongoing process of the past fifty years. From the analysis of people’s narratives and extended participant observation, it emerges that the choice of garments is of real concern to many Tibetan people as it communicates messages about the self and their position in the world. I contend that Tibetan men especially have strategically taken to wearing Western-style suits in an attempt to enact Han Chinese economic success.

Chinese Economic Success - Inspiration for Economy, Policy and Security

This paper focuses on the recent changes in global economic relations and increase of China's importance in global politics, security and economy. It describes the changes in China's security, economic, political strategy and its influence to its own development and empowering its position in international economic, political and security relations. The implications for the EU security management are described, too.

Ownership Changes of Chinese Newspapers Listed? The Case of Beijing Media Corporation

The ownership structure is important and marks the development of a market. For media companies, the change of their corporate structure is an important achievement in the cultural systematic reform and deepens the reform in the publishing and distribution industry, which is necessary for the development of a modern cultural industry system.Chinese media opened first time to market forces in 1978 when they turned from non-profit institutions (shiye danwei) to profit-oriented organizations. Advertising revenues became and still today are the first and most important financial source for Chinese media organizations. The commercialization of the media industry was further consolidated in January 1996 when the first newspaper conglomerate, the Guangzhou Daily Press Group, was established. Since then a number of newspaper groups, including the Nanfang Daily Press Group, Yangcheng Evening News Press Group and Wenhui Xinmin Press Group have been established. While the conglomeration of press industry took place, quite a few enterprises associated with media organizations went public, marking the beginning of Chinese media corporatization. As restructuring the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been considered a fundamental factor for Chinese economic success in the last decade, the recent restructuring of Chinese media enterprises is at the top of agenda of reforms of the Chinese cultural industry. The ownership change, towards a private ownership, has been considered a necessary condition for enterprise’s efficiency. In this paper we provide an explorative analysis of the corporate governance of Chinese newspapers which are listed on stock markets. In particular we focus on Beijing Media Corporation (BMC), which is the only Chinese press enterprise listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, therefore offering H shares to foreign investors. We examine the changes of its ownership structure and its possible implications by adopting an exclusive economic-financial approach. This paper is organized as follows: in section 1 we provide the theoretical background for the analysis of corporate governance in general; section 2 focuses on the Chinese background, especially addressing the structure of press enterprises. The BMC case study is discussed in section 3. Conclusions are drawn in section 4.

Open Door for Books

This study charts the foreign books that the Chinese have been reading over the past three decades and introduces how Western thoughts have contributed to China’s economic miracle. The essay explores the sources of China’s social progress under the Open Door Policy, concluding that “Without the influence of foreign books, there would have been no Chinese economic success” (p. 269). Although volumes have been written on China, little attention has been paid to mainstream Chinese intellectual trends since 1978. This essay, thus, has dealt with a consequential issue in a provocative and original way and contains information that has never appeared in English.

Confucian moral roots of citizenship behaviour in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which Confucian moral standards may serve as a moral root of employees' organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in the People's Republic of China (PRC).Design/methodology/approachThe approach is conceptual, based on research within the field.FindingsThis paper suggests that the moral characteristics of Confucianism (based on a strong body of empirical studies): harmony, group orientation, guanxi (relationships), diligence, self‐learning and thrift, are the great virtues of the indigenous forms of OCB in the PRC, including helping co‐worker; individual initiative and/or functional participation; group activity participation; self‐development; social welfare participation; promoting company image; voice; protecting and saving company resources; interpersonal harmony and keeping the workplace clean; and keeping departmental harmony and coexistence in adversity.Originality/valueFirst, this paper contributes to the extant knowledge as to the ways in which Confucian moral standards may affect Chinese exhibition of OCB. Second, this paper contributes to discerning Chinese economic success on employees' OCB performance with recourse to its traditional cultural heritage of Confucian moral standards. Finally, it highlights the presence of voice as a type of OCB which may be attributed to China's opening up to the West.

‘Big Think’, Disjointed Incrementalism: Chinese Economic Success and Policy Lessons for Africa, or the Case for Pan-Africanism

Chinese economic success is not the product of free market accidental coincidence. Rather, it is orchestrated by the State through a mixture of nationalism (‘big think’) and pragmatic decisions (disjointed incrementalism) in agriculture, finance and industry. Furthermore, these decisions build upon existing institutions (e.g. the Household Responsibility System, Township Village Enterprises, etc), some dating back to pre-revolutionary China (e.g. Special Economic Zones), rather than imported ones from outside China. The article explores the utility (and lack thereof) of the Chinese model in the African context, as well as the possibilities of an Africa-centred ‘big think’ (Pan-Africanism) capable of mobilizing the continent for development.

Away from socialism: The Asian way

Abstract This article offers a refined institutional approach to ascertain the main cause of China's economic surge. It first surveys the literature on economic performance of (ex‐)socialist countries. Then it offers an institution mix to account for Chinese economic success: hard budget constraint, state‐regulated market, export expansion and bureaucratic autonomy. It argues that hard budget constraint of the private or quasi‐private sector is necessary to concentrate incentives on production, and away from vertical bargaining, while the state regulation of markets is conducive to a strategic allocation of resources. In this institutional framework, export expansion becomes necessary not only for the market outlets it provides, but also for the competition it brings about that would otherwise be lacking in a state‐regulated market. Finally, bureaucratic autonomy is necessary to design and implement industrial policy that serves state capitalism and promotes export expansion. This four‐item institution mix explains to a great extent China's economic success in the past decade. With some modifications, it also accounts for most of Asia's other economic miracles. By doing so, the article rejects the Krugman theme which predicts that East Asia's miracle economies will inevitably slow down as they enter the phase of intensive growth without being able to raise factor productivity continuously. In contrast, this article asserts that the optimal institution mix, if property maintained, may be able to successfully shift East Asia from extensive to intensive growth.