Economic Transformation In China Research Articles

Intensive-Use-Oriented Performance Evaluation and Optimization of Rural Industrial Land: A Case Study of Wujiang District, China

Rural industrialization is one of the core drivers of urban and rural spatial evolution and economic transformation in China. Given the background of stock and reduction planning, the development of rural industrial land, which has long relied on land inputs to increase production and inefficient expansion, is facing severe constraints and challenges. How to improve the spatial performance of rural industrial land and promote industrial upgrading and intensive land use have become vital issues for the healthy development of rural areas. This paper draws upon smart shrinkage theory to provide an analytical framework for the intensive-use-oriented performance evaluation of rural industrial land, unlike the evaluation method of efficiency orientation for industrial land, which emphasizes the core goal of the input and output of production factors per unit area. Based on the analysis framework, this study explored the parcel-microscale performance evaluation methods for rural industrial land, and the evaluation index system construction covers the four dimensions of economic performance, social performance, ecological performance, and land use structure performance. Wujiang District of Suzhou City was used as a case study to carry out a comprehensive performance evaluation and analyze the differences in RILP in space and industry. Based on the evaluation results, the key problems of rural industrial land were identified, and corresponding optimization strategies for rural industrial land are proposed from the aspects of land use control, spatial agglomeration, and industrial upgrading. This study intended to address the current major national strategic needs and solve the real dilemmas faced in the process of rural industrial land development. It is hoped that the study will provide a theoretical reference for the transformation of rural industrial land and policy-making for rural revitalization.

Digital Finance Enables Green Innovation in New Energy Companies

Digital finance development has an important role in promoting economic transformation and has become a new engine leading the development of the real economy, while green innovation is an important goal of the current economic transformation to a green and sustainable one. Based on the panel data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2018, this paper finds that digital finance has a significant promoting effect on the green innovation of new energy enterprises through panel data fixed effects regression model. Furthermore, through sub-sample regression, it is found that the promotion effect of digital finance on new energy enterprises is heterogeneous, and the promotion effect is more significant for state-owned enterprises and enterprises with more decentralized power. The above findings of this paper have important implications for the current economic transformation in China.

An ESG investment evaluation system based on metrics and model innovation

In recent years, with the acceleration of the economic transformation in China, environmentally friendly and sustainable enterprises are more conducive the construction of a green economy. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) which can quantify the relationship between enterprises and the environment, has emerged as the times require. Therefore, based on the "scoring model system for ESG information disclosure", we simplified and reformulated the ESG investment evaluation system, and built iESG, an integrated green financial service platform for small, medium and micro enterprises. It fills the gap in the field of ESG evaluation in the market, and provides targeted ESG evaluation and related analysis and green financial services for small, medium and micro enterprises and independent investors.

The role of internet development on green total-factor productivity—An empirical analysis based on 109 cities in Yangtze River economic belt

As one of the most important economic regions in China, the improvement of green total-factor productivity (GTFP) in Yangtze River economic belt has vital significance for economic transformation in China. Using 109 cities’ panel data from 2004 to 2018, slacks-based global data envelopment analysis was first applied to construct GTFP. On the basis, dynamic GMM and mediation effect models were used to investigate the role of internet development on GTFP. The empirical results illustrated that GTFP lacked endogenous driving force. However, internet development not only has significant direct positive effect on GTFP, but also indirectly promotes GTFP through technology innovation and industrial structure upgrade. And the mediation variables also have two-way positive impacts on internet development. After accounting robustness test, the empirical conclusions were still valid. Based on the analysis, our study provided scientific and reasonable policies to improve GTFP in Yangtze River economic belt.

Did China’s “National Sustainable Development Plan of Resource-Based Cities” Promote Economic Growth?

This study utilizes a difference-in-difference (DID) regression model to evaluate the impact of China’s “National Sustainable Development Plan of Resource-Based Cities (2013–2020)” on economic growth in resource-based cities. The analysis is based on the data covering 329 Chinese cities during 2006–2019. Economic growth is measured by the annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP). It was found that the policy had a significantly negative impact on economic growth. Further analysis suggests that the policy depressed innovation in resource-based cities, and these cities did not expand their labor and capital inputs. These two phenomena can help explain why the policy’s effect on economic growth was negative, rather than positive. Moreover, our study reports that the effect of the policy was heterogeneous across different cities, depending on their development stages and spatial locations. Overall, our study detects an undesirable effect of the policy. The research findings call for more actions to promote macroeconomic growth during the process of economic transformation in China’s resource-based cities.

Energy Use Greenization, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis Based in China

Developing countries are constantly facing the problem of environmental degradation. Environmental degradation is caused by the consumption of non-renewable energy for economic growth, but the consequences of environmental degradation cannot be ignored. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between three variables (i.e., energy use greenization, CO2 emission, and economic growth) in the case of China using simultaneous equation modeling techniques and data for the period 2000–2018. The results indicate that (1) there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between energy use greenization, carbon emissions, and economic growth in China. Energy use greenization not only reduces carbon dioxide emissions but also promotes sustainable economic growth in China. (2) Carbon emissions and economic growth have promoted energy use greenization, indicating that the pressures of environmental climate and economic transformation in China have forced energy use greenization to a certain extent. (3) The contribution rate of energy use greenization to economic growth shows an inverted U-shaped trend that rises first and then decreases subsequently, while carbon emissions have a relatively large contribution rate to green energy use and economic growth. These results have far-reaching policy directions for the environmental sustainability goals of the Chinese economy.

Input-Output Efficiency of Water-Energy-Food and Its Driving Forces: Spatial-Temporal Heterogeneity of Yangtze River Economic Belt, China.

The high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) plays a crucial role in economic transformation in China. Climate change, rapid population growth, and increased urbanization have contributed towards increased pressures on the water, energy, food (WEF) nexus system of YREB. Thus, there is an imperative need to improve the efficiency of WEF in YREB. However, few studies have conducted spatial-temporal heterogeneity exploration of YREB about the input-output efficiency of WEF (IOE-WEF). Using panel data from 2008–2017, a super slack based model (SSBM), combined with the spatial autocorrelation and spatial econometric method, were proposed to calculate the IOE-WEF of YREB’s 11 provinces, the results indicated that: (1) From the perspective of time, the IOE-WEF in YREB was relatively low and displayed a fluctuating downward pattern while considering the undesirable outputs. (2) From the perspective of space, the spatial distribution of IOE-WEF in YREB was uneven. The efficiency values of the three sub-regions of YREB were “the lower reaches > the middle reaches > the upper reaches”. The IOE-WEF of YREB had a prominent positive spatial correlation and also had a spatial spillover effect. (3) The spatial aggregation effect of IOE-WEF of YREB is gradually weakening. The spatial aggregation types of IOE-WEF in YREB were “high-high” cluster areas in lower reaches and “low-low” cluster areas in upper reaches. (4) From the perspective of driving forces, environmental regulation and technological innovation promoted the improvement of IOE-WEF of YREB, while the industrial structure and mechanization level inhibited the improvement of IOE-WEF of YREB. Furthermore, the role of government support of IOE-WEF of YREB was not obvious. The improvement of IOE-WEF in adjacent regions also had a notable positive spatial spillover effect on the region.

Environmental implications of economic transformation in China's Pearl River Delta region: Dynamics at four nested geographical scales over 1987–2017

Environmental pollution in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region is largely driven by socioeconomic forces outside the region as vast majority of manufacturing products produced in the region are destined to national and international markets. Given the remarkable economic transformation of the PRD in the past decades, this study investigates the impacts of local, provincial, national, and global socio-economic drivers on PRD's pollution dynamics under the background of significant economic restructuring and upgrading from 1987 to 2017. The results indicate that changes in pollution pattern were deeply shaped by the economic transformation. The share of PRD's emissions driven by international exports expanded significantly before 2007 as a result of the fast growth of international exports. The transformation of economic growth to domestic consumption driven model since the 2007–2008 global financial crisis had resulted in an increasing contribution share to the PRD's environmental pollution from local demand and trade with Rest of China (RoC). Similarly, as final demand structure evolving towards the high value-added manufacturing and services, the share of emissions driven by low value-added manufacturing (LVM) demand had decreased by an enlarged margin, while that driven by high value-added manufacturing (HVM) demand and services demand had moved in the opposite direction. The structural decomposition analysis shows that reduction in emission intensity remains the most effective way in pollution alleviation. The contribution of changes in production input structure also shifted from a strong impetus force before 2007 to a mitigating force afterwards due to significant technological progresses in the industrial sectors since the global financial crisis. With the marginal cost of reducing emission intensity becoming prohibitively expensive, the optimization of production structure and consumption pattern is likely to play more important role in future emission mitigation.

Hukou stratification, class structure, and earnings in transitional China

The massive economic transformation in China has triggered a vigorous scholarly debate on whether the persistent power of the state or the increasing market liberalization is the main driving force of inequality. In this article, we attempt to understand this debate through the lens of two coexisting stratification systems––the longstanding hukou (household registration) system and an emerging class structure. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey from 2008 to 2015, we develop new typologies for hukou stratification and class structure and examine their relative contributions in determining workers’ earnings. We further investigate differences in their effects between the Inland and Coastal regions. We find that class ranks ahead of education and hukou as the strongest determinant of earnings in China as a whole. Regionally, hukou and class are strong determinants of earnings, but hukou has a relatively stronger effect in Inland China. The findings shed light on the changing stratification dynamics in transitional China and contribute to the literature on the market transition debate.

The heterogeneous impact of environmental regulations on low‐carbon economic transformation in China: Empirical research based on the mediation effect model

AbstractThe heterogeneous impacts of environmental regulation on China's low‐carbon economic transformation has attracted much attention. This paper uses the provincial panel data of China as the sample, by constructing a dynamic intermediary effect model, this paper empirically tests the intermediary effect and path difference of different environmental regulation policies on carbon dioxide emission reduction. The study found that whether China's environmental regulatory policies can influence the intensity of carbon emissions through mediation effects is closely related to the type of policy. China's ordered environmental regulation policy can force technological innovation to indirectly curb carbon emissions, but a high carbon industry structure indirectly promotes carbon emissions. Carbon trading pilots have a negative intermediary effect on carbon emissions through industrial structure and technological innovation. The eastern mainly directly suppress carbon emissions through the market incentive policy, the central mainly relies on the command‐controlled environmental policy to achieve backward emission reduction, the western produces a green paradox. The Chinese government must fully consider the heterogeneity of environmental policies constantly improve and optimize the combination of environmental regulation policies. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Does the application of ICTs facilitate rural economic transformation in China? Empirical evidence from the use of smartphones among farmers

This paper investigates the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the transformation of rural economies by evaluating the use of smartphones among farmers in China. We use unique three-wave panel data to document the transformation path of rural economies in recent years. An endogenous switching probit model and a counterfactual analysis are applied to estimate the effects of smartphone use. The results show that from 2008 to 2015, rural economies in China could be characterized by the following three aspects: a) increased off-farm employment, b) expanded grain cultivation, and c) decreased crop diversification. The estimation results indicate that the use of smartphones among farmers had significant impacts on the transformation of rural economies by facilitating the off-farm employment of the farmers' family members, the cultivation of nongrain crops and crop specialization. These findings complement the empirical evidence on the role of ICTs, particularly smartphones, in the development of rural economies in China and other developing countries.

Towards Developing a New Model for Inclusive Cities in China—The Case of Xiong’an New Area

Along with unprecedented urbanization in the last few decades, cities have experienced rapid social and economic transformation in China. A major challenge facing urban authorities in the immediate future is how to plan and govern cities such that they can serve as inclusive systems where everyone is enabled and empowered to fully participate in and contribute to socioeconomic life. A first step towards realizing this is to conceptualize an integrated framework that allows analysts and decision-makers to delineate, evaluate, and guide the development of these cities towards inclusiveness. In this study, we conducted a conceptual analysis of urban inclusiveness and then proposed a multidimensional framework for the evaluation of inclusive development. This is followed by the presentation of the case of Xiong’an, for which inclusive development indicators (IDIs) were selected. By comparing the state before the establishment of Xiong’an with its current development progress, and analyzing the area’s management structure and policy measures, the inclusive development challenges are identified. Subsequently, suggestions are given on how to direct Xiong’an toward higher levels of inclusiveness, including offering equal access to public services and employment opportunities, preserving environmental health and sustainable use of natural resources through waste recycling, and encouraging public participation in decision-making to bring higher levels of inclusion within reach.

Evaluation of the Role of Rural Tourism Industry in Promoting Economic Transformation Based on Intelligent SVM Classification Algorithm

With the development of economy, China’s tourism industry has made great progress in recent years, various types of tourism industry emerge in endlessly, and in this context, the innovation of the tourism industry is very important. However, there is an obvious imbalance between the urban and rural economic development in China. In order to improve the economic development difference caused by the inherent urban-rural dual structure, it is necessary to formulate effective measures to promote economic transformation. In this paper, the study of rural tourism industry analysis, targeted solutions against the bottleneck link, based on an intelligent SVM classification algorithm analysis of urban and rural development and the trend of the economic transformation in China.

Index system to assess implementation of strategic land use plans in China

The strategic land use plan is an effective tool to implement new ideas and strategic adjustments in land use policies in the context of the economic transformation of China. This study designs an index system for quantifying the success of the implementation of strategic land use plans. The proposed index system consists of two independent dimensions as quota implementation and task implementation. The indices for assessing quota implementation were directly obtained from planning quotas and quantified by conformance analysis. We determined the extent to which the output of the quotas had met expectations. The indices for assessing task implementation were obtained through questionnaires and quantified by performance analysis. We divided the indices into several scenarios for scoring. This framework was applied to a medium-term evaluation of China's Land and Resource Plan of 2016. The results reveal the advantages and defects of the planning implementation. Four provinces, mostly concentrated in the east, were praiseworthy in implementing the plan in the two dimensions but four others, mostly concentrated in the west, were failed. There was a positive correlation between the comprehensive conformance values and the performance scores and were weak correlations between the conformance of four quotas and the performance of seven tasks. This study has practical value for quantitatively monitoring the implementation of strategic land use plans. The results can provide suggestions for new ideas and strategies in land use policies during the economic transformation in China, including optimizing ecological protection, improving farmland quality and people's livelihood within rural land requisition, and strengthening law enforcement.

Energy System Reform Creates Energy Internet Era

The start of energy reformation in China has introduced a huge opportunity for the improvement and reorganization of the energy structure. As the reformation of energy system is going further, there are currently different views on the future energy structure and “Internet + energy”. In this article, a review is presented on the development history from the smart energy system to Energy Internet at home and abroad. The current status of the development of the Energy Internet is also interpreted. Then authors demonstrate their own understanding on Energy Internet and the importance of energy system reformation. In the future, the energy structure will be consisted of basic Energy Internet and higher levels of Energy Internet, with spirits of more openness, equality, interactivity and sharing. Human oriented is the original point of Energy Internet. Internet will provide tools to optimize all segments of energy system and finally benefits every customer with “best” energy service. More renewable energy is expected to be accommodated in the Energy Internet, with the important assistance from distributed energy on modulating and backup. The role of distributed energy systems will be highlighted for their important function in the future energy structure. As representing advanced productivity, the Energy Internet is expected to solve current energy problems, create a new field of energy service and help with the economic transformation in China.

Will Officials’ Turnover Affect Enterprises’ Financial Subsidies? An Empirical Research Based on Chinese Family Firms

With administrative decentralization and fiscal decentralization, local officials are in control of many important resources such as administrative examination and approval, land acquisition, loan guarantees, and policy preferences. In fact, they have become the main executors of regional economic development and social order stability. However, as far as the personnel system of cadres in our country is concerned, the turnover of local officials is a normal state. In addition, because of the differences of personal experiences and individual characteristics of different officials, their policy preferences in the term of office also exist greater heterogeneity, which leads to the fact that the replacement of officials will affect the operation of enterprises in varying degrees. As a kind of free transfer payment provided by the government to the main body of micro-economic activities, the financial subsidy is also the embodiment of the interaction between the government and enterprises. However, there are few scholars analyze whether the turnover of local officials will affect the acquisition of financial subsidies of enterprises. Based on the sample data of family listed companies from 2007 to 2014, this paper examines the influence of officials turnover on financial subsidies of family firms from the perspective of the turnover of party secretaries of prefecture-level cities. The main conclusions are as follows: First, to some extent, the replacement of officials will break the original relationship between the government and enterprises. Compared with state-owned enterprises, family firms are more vulnerable to the impact of such external shocks, the most direct reflection of which is the reduction of government subsidies. Second, there is a potential assumption that family firms use political connections to gain resource advantages, so they are more vulnerable to the break-up of the relationship between the government and enterprises, as the turnover of officials will affect financial subsidies of enterprises. At present, there are two views on the political relationship: the view of efficiency” and the view of rent-seeking”. The view of efficiency” holds that seeking the political relationship is the best choice for high-quality enterprises when the institutional environment is poor; while the view of rent-seeking” holds that the political connection is a means of rent-seeking, which cannot be regarded as the standard of judging high-quality enterprises, nor is it conducive to the improvement of economic and social efficiency of enterprises. This study finds that when officials are replaced, financial subsidies of politically affiliated enterprises are more affected, which indicates that the turnover of officials affects the access of rent-seeking enterprises to financial subsidies, and in the process, the rent-seeking” view of the political connection has been verified. Third, in the regions where the system efficiency is more perfect, the influence of the replacement of officials on financial subsidies of enterprises is weakened. Finally, the further study of this paper finds that when officials are from other provinces and cities, the break of the interest alliance caused by the turnover of officials has a more significant impact on financial subsidies of family firms. In addition, when the performance of enterprises is poor, the influence of officials’ turnover and political connections on financial subsidies of enterprises is more significant. This study has a certain theoretical contribution and practical significance. From the perspective of theoretical contributions, this paper not only expands the research field of the impact of officials’ turnover on enterprises, but also enriches the existing research on financial subsidies, institutional governance and the relationship between government and enterprises. From the perspective of practical significance, this paper believes that at the present stage of economic transformation in China, it is suggested that the current government performance appraisal system should be adjusted to a certain extent, and GDP should no longer be used as a single assessment index. On the contrary, the adjustment of the regional economic structure, the upgrading of the industrial structure, and the ability of regional innovation are more included in the official performance system, so as to guide local officials to allocate limited government subsidies to enterprises with good development prospects, strong innovative capacity, in line with the direction of national strategic development. In addition, market reforms should be further deepened, and institutionalized government subsidy standards should be formed, so that financial subsidies can also form market allocations, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of financial subsidies.

Developing a National Contaminated Land Liability Scheme in China: the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Revisited

Land contamination has undermined sustainable development in China in the context of the nation’s environmental, economic and social wellbeing. It is still heavily reliant on general environmental protection legislation to regulate soil- or land-polluting activities and it is becoming increasingly evident that contaminated land issues should be addressed in a more cohesive and equitable national framework. The US Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980 to regulate remediation and redevelopment of contaminated sites. This ground-breaking legislation delineates a complex and far-reaching liability scheme for various potential responsible parties. However, throughout its history, CERCLA’s defining features imposing ‘strict, joint and several, and retroactive liability’ have been roundly criticised for resulting in limited coverage of claims, curtailment of statutory defences, unfairness to innocent parties and high transaction costs. China has already incorporated several key liability standards, for example strict liability and joint and several liability provisions; however, the regimes developed in both jurisdictions remain problematic and in many cases ineffective. Bearing in mind the lessons learned from CERCLA, this article argues that a more flexible contaminated land liability regime might be appropriate for China. A number of criteria should be considered in the development of China’s nationwide contaminated land legislation, which include: adoption of the ‘polluter pays’ principle; establishment of the ‘retroactive liability’ on a firm legal basis; adoption of joint and several liability; and establishment of ‘state liability’ within China. In particular, the profound social and economic transformation in China must be taken into account in both the design and development of a contaminated land liability regime and this article highlights some of the important issues in this regard.

“Active Judiciary”: Judicial Dismantling Of Workers’ Collective Action in China

The market-driven economic transformation in China has made the rule of law increasingly important in labor relations. In the past three decades, the state has actively legislated on labor issues, passing three major laws: the Labor Law in 1994, the Trade Union Law in 2002 and the Labor Contract Law in 2008. These have laid down the legal foundation for labor relations, not only by defining workers’ rights, but also by stipulating procedures for labor disputes. Procedural systematization and the promulgation of labor laws have raised workers’ awareness of their legal rights, resulting in an exponential growth in labor disputes. This has brought courts to the forefront of labor dispute resolution. Scholars have focused on the role of the judicial process in settling labor disputes. They have examined how legal procedures have opened up new opportunities for workers to air their grievances and press for redress, and how legal and institutional changes have shaped legal mobilization. Laws have been viewed as “weapons” allowing discontented workers—mainly as individual litigators—to seek justice, or giving trade unions a role in legal aid, while the courts process workers’ individual claims. Nevertheless, the courts do not encounter only individual labor disputes. The past two decades have witnessed a growing number of collective labor

Rationales, design and recruitment of the Taizhou Longitudinal Study

BackgroundRapid economic growth in China in the past decades has been accompanied by dramatic changes in lifestyle and environmental exposures. The burdens of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, have also increased substantially.Methods/designWe initiated a large prospective cohort–the Taizhou Longitudinal Study–in Taizhou (a medium-size city in China) to explore the environmental and genetic risk factors for common non-communicable diseases. The sample size of the cohort will be at least 100,000 adults aged 30–80 years drawn from the general residents of the districts of Hailin, Gaogang, and Taixing (sample frame, 1.8 million) of Taizhou. A three-stage stratified sampling method will be applied. Baseline investigations include interviewer-administered questionnaire, anthropometric measurements, and collection of buccal mucosal cells and blood specimens. DNA will be extracted for genetic studies and serum samples will be used for biochemical examinations. A follow-up survey will be conducted every three years to obtain information on disease occurrence and information on selected lifestyle exposures. Study participants will be followed-up indefinitely by using a chronic disease register system for morbidity and cause-specific mortality. Information on non-fatal events will be obtained for certain major categories of disease (e.g., cancer, stroke, myocardial infarction) through established registry systems.DiscussionThe Taizhou Longitudinal Study will provide a good basis for exploring the roles of many important environmental factors (especially those concomitant with the economic transformation in China) for common chronic diseases, solely or via interaction with genetic factors.

Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision. Satyananda J. Gabriel

Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision, by Satyananda J. Gabriel. London: Routledge, 2006. [xii] + 194 pp. £75.00 (hardcover). In this book, Satyananda Gabriel uses the tools of Marxism to understand the social and economic transformation of China since reform began in the late 1970s. His is an Althusserian, post-structuralist version of Marxism, most closely associated with the journal Rethinking Marxism. In a span of only 173 pages, Gabriel introduces his theoretical tools, discusses the changing social contract in China, examines the transition to labor markets, studies the changing characteristics of both township and village enterprises and state-run enterprises, reviews the transformation of agriculture, considers the emergence of reformed and of new financial institutions, and reflects on the interactions between all these changes and China's increasing engagement with the global economy. Throughout this gallop, Gabriel deploys two principal theoretical tools. One is the concept of overdetermination, the notion that a process reflects the totality of other social processes, rather than being produced by a subset of important factors (the remainder being insignificant). A process is understood as a constellation of events that produce a state of being: the state of being exists only insofar as the constellation of events continues to be reproduced. A transition, then, occurs when one set of processes is replaced by another, and a shift in the prevalence of one class process to another is a class transition. No factor is the sole determinant; all processes and so all transitions are the effect of other processes, no single one of which is determinate. The other is a particular definition of class, which-following Resnick and Wolff-is understood as the relationship by which humans engage in the performance, appropriation and distribution of surplus labor. This definition differs from a classical Marxist definition in which class is identified with the nature and extent of property ownership: for example, in capitalism, capitalists and workers are separated by their ownership (and non-ownership) of the means of production, a separation that is the key to understanding the mode and relations of production. Likewise it differs from what Gabriel calls the modernist Marxist focus on technology (forces of production) as the key determinant of social change. As is clear from the shortness of the book and the breadth of topics covered, Gabriel's contribution is principally theoretical-his interpretation of change in China-rather than empirical. He makes several claims. The first is that struggles for the political control of the Chinese Communist Party have been principally struggles over versions of Marxism. On the one side were the Maoists, who understood class struggle to be the principal driver of social change-struggle, that is, over the conditions under which surplus labor is performed, appropriated and distributed. On the other side were (and are) the modernist Marxists, including Zhou, Deng, Jiang and Hu, to whom technology rather than class is the principal driving force of history. It is explicit in this argument that the post-Mao reformers were and are Marxists (of a particular kind). The second claim is that post-revolutionary China was feudal. In other words, the transition that is embodied in the post-1978 reforms is a transition from (state) feudalism. Gabriel understands a feudal class process as one in which direct producers (people who actually do the physical work) are obliged by socially constituted ties to perform surplus labor for a specific individual or institution. During the Great Leap Forward, in the late 1950s, both rural and urban direct producers became bound to serve the state, to produce a surplus for the state and receive in return certain welfare protections. …