Suchergebnisse

One of the core assumptions of recent American foreign policy is that China's post-1978 policy of "reform and openness" will lead to political liberalization. This book challenges that assumption and the general relationship between economic liberalization and democratization. Moreover, it analyzes the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) liberalization on Chinese labor politics. Market reforms and increased integration with the global economy have brought about unprecedented economic growth and social change in China during the last quarter of a century. Contagious Capitalism contends th

Unifying China, Integrating with the World: Securing Chinese
Sovereignty in the Reform Era. By Allen Carlson. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2005. 320p. $55.00.This is one of the first major works examining Chinese sovereignty in
the post-Mao era. Unlike earlier works that have examined sovereignty
through its manifestation in one or two policy areas—such as Taiwan,
human rights, or economic integration—Allen Carlson's
synthesizes Chinese behavior and rhetoric over a range of issue areas,
from Taiwanese independence to World Trade Organization accession.

After the acute crisis of SARS the previous year, 2004 in China opened with no notable reappearance of the virus. The economy was the country's biggest problem, with leaders in Beijing attempting to curb overheating by imposing macroeconomic administrative restrictions. Jiang Zemin's retirement from the Central Military Commission allowed the new leadership of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to press forward with new policies of "scientific development." These policies professed to be more balanced and more egalitarian; however, their implementation seemed to require renewed restrictions on dissent.

The past twenty-five years of economic reform have seen the transformation of labor relations in China, with the widespread adoption of capitalist labor practices by firms of all ownership types. This transformation has occurred in the absence of both large-scale privatization & political change, but was part of a gradual yet dynamic liberalization & "opening up" to foreign trade & investment that occurred across both regions & across types of firms. The first half of this paper details this process of dynamic liberalization that has spawned competition & change in labor practices, including marked increases in managerial autonomy & labor flexibility. This explanation goes beyond the regional emphasis to also examine changes across types of ownership; the gradual liberalization of labor policies & convergence with capitalist practices can only be understood as part of a more general trend of ownership expansion, through the introduction of new types of firms, and ownership recombination, which is the fusing of the public & non-state sectors through novel forms of organization. The much-needed panacea to this shift to capitalism -- a state regulatory & legal regime that is capable of mitigating its excesses & effective organizations to represent labor -- is not yet well established. The second half of this paper explores two institutions, the labor contract system & the official trade union organization, to show how labor relations have shifted dramatically toward flexibility, insecurity, & managerial control. 3 Tables, 95 References. Adapted from the source document.

The effects of economic transition upon labor in the contemporary People's Republic of China are investigated. An overview of the Chinese state's replacement of its socialist economy with one that relied more upon markets is presented, emphasizing the growth of unemployment upon urban labor & the substitution of rural industrial workers for state & collective laborers. Four articles that contemplate the various changes experienced by the Chinese working classes are then introduced. It is asserted that these articles highlight three important developments within the Chinese state, eg, the Chinese Communist government has adopted a new ideological perspective that prioritizes individualism & market reform & has failed to establish institutions that would provide social protection for unemployed laborers. It is suggested that the Chinese state's inability to address several issues, eg, providing social protections for the unemployed & developing strategies for combating corruption & unemployment, will likely engender labor & political protests in the nation. The capacity of the Chinese Communist government to preserve its authoritarian political & social policies while maintaining its experiment with a market-based economy is also briefly pondered. J. W. Parker