China and socialism: Engaging the issues

Critical Asian Studies

Volumn 37, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 597-628

  Hart Landsberg, Martin ^a   Burkett, Paul ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

SOCIALISM;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 33244493127     PISSN: 14672715     EISSN: 14726033     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14672710500348471     Document Type: Editorial

References (133)

1. Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, China and Socialism: Market Reforms and Class Struggle (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2005);
2. previously published in Monthly Review 56, no. 3 (July-August 2004). All page citations in this response refer to the 2005 book.
3. For our broader critique of mainstream development thinking with reference to East Asia, see Paul Burkett and Martin Hart-Landsberg, Development, Crisis, and Class Struggle: Learning from Japan and East Asia (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000).
4. Ching Kwan Lee, "From the Specter of Mao to the Spirit of the Law: Labor Insurgency in China," Theory and Society 31, no. 2 (2002): 220-21.
5. Ibid., 221.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. On the continued relevance of Marxist analysis to the Chinese experience, see Jamie Morgan, "Contemporary China, Anachronistic Marxism? The Continued Explanatory Power of Marxism," Critical Asian Studies 36, no. 1 (March 2004): 65-90.
9. See, for example, the selection of quotes accompanying the roundtable, under the heading "Embracing China's Market-Reform Strategy? What Others Are Saying," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 (September 2005): 460-61.
10. Stephen Roach, "What If China Slows?" Global Economic Forum, Morgan Stanley, 23 May 2005, on-line edition;
11. George J. Gilboy, "The Myth behind China's Miracle," Foreign Affairs, July-August 2004, on-line edition.
12. Gene Cooper, "Thinking about China: Engaging Burkett and Hart-Landsberg," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 (September 2005): 490.
13. Robert H. McGuckin and Matthew Spiegelman, "China's Experience with Productivity and Jobs: Benefits and Costs of Change," Part I, Research Report no. R-1352-04-RR, The Conference Board, June 2004, http://www.conferenceboard.org/publications/reports.cfm.
14. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 490.
15. Victor D. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform: Observations on China and Socialism," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 (September 2005): 471-72.
16. Ibid., 477.
17. Bloomberg News, "China: Bank Restrictions Eased," New York Times, 5 August 2004, W1;
18. David Barboza and Keith Bradsher, "Another China Bank Is Courted by the West," New York Times, 11 July 2005, C1 and C2;
19. The Economist, "Investing in China: Milking It," 9 October 2004, 67-68;
20. David Barboza, "Another Chinese Bank Has a Western Suitor," New York Times, 28 July 2005, C4;
21. Eva Cheng, "China: Sweeping Privatizations Spark Criticism," Green Left Weekly, 16 March 2005, on-line edition.
22. Gregory C. Chow, "Impact of Joining the WTO on China's Economic, Legal and Political Institutions," Pacific Economic Review 8, no. 2 (June 2003): 108.
23. Among the roundtable commentators, only Tai-lok Lui seems to recognize the kind of historically contingent path dependency we were claiming. He rightly characterizes our analysis as "an attempt to transcend the existing mindset and framework of evaluating what has happened in China since the launching of market reforms in 1978. China's decision in favor of the so-called socialist market economy was not inevitable (as critics of socialist ideas often assume). Nor is it now necessarily the best available option, however we understand the meaning of 'best.'" Tai-lok Lui, "Bringing Class Back In: China Restratified," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 (September 2005): 516.
24. Ibid., 517.
25. However, Alvin So goes too far with his suggestion that we basically ignored the fact that "market reforms emerged in a context where the partystate controlled almost every aspect of economy and society," including "the contours of class formation and class conflict." (Alvin Y. So, "Beyond the Logic of Capital and the Polarization Model: The State, Market Reforms, and the Plurality of Class Conflict in China," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 [September 2005]: 498.) Leaving aside So's overestimation of the extent and depth of party-state control, our reform narrative took explicit account of the relevant party-state directives and resolutions in each stage, as well as the role of Deng and other party leaders in shaping the ideological terrain of policy debates. Naturally, there is always room for more depth and detail in this area compared to what we could cover in a short popular book not designed for academics.
26. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 54-55, 67, 74-75.
27. See also Joseph Kahn, "China's Elite Learn to Flaunt It While the New Landless Weep," New York Times, 25 December 2004, A1 and C4;
28. Zhao Huanxin, "'Live Life Now' Is Mantra of New Rich," China Daily, 16 May 2005, on-line edition.
29. David Barboza, "7 Habits of Highly Effective Cadres: Western Management Experts Descend on an Eager China," New York Times, 19 February 2005, B1 and B3;
30. "The New Power Brokers: Born in China, Now Closing Deals for U.S. Firms," New York Times, 19 July 2005, C1 and C4.
31. Lui, "Bringing Class Back In," 518.
32. Ibid.
33. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 476.
34. Lui, "Bringing Class Back In," 518.
35. So, "Beyond the Logic of Capital," 498.
36. So also completely bypasses our book's treatment of international contradictions in the reform process - none of which can be directly traced to Marx's Capital. Naturally this reinforces the impression So creates that our analysis is overly abstract.
37. Xiaobo Zhang and Ravi Kanbur, "Spatial Inequality in Education and Health Care in China," China Economic Review 16, no. 2 (June 2005): 192.
38. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 472.
39. Zhang and Kanbur, "Spatial Inequality," 193.
40. Amartya Sen, "Passage to China," New York Review of Books 51, no. 19 (2 December 2004), on-line edition.
41. Harry Magdoff and Fred Magdoff, "Approaching Socialism," Monthly Review 57, no. 3 (July-August 2005): 45.
42. Shaikh I. Hossain, "Tackling Health Transition in China," Working Paper no. 1813, The World Bank, August 1997, 2.
43. Ibid.
44. Zhang and Kanbur, "Spatial Inequality," 191;
45. "Hospitals May Open to Private Investment, "People's Daily, 3 August 2004, on-line edition.
46. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 486.
47. Zhang and Kanbur, "Spatial Inequality," 191.
48. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 475.
49. Ibid.
50. Maurice Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1995 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996), 230-31.
51. Jim Yardley, "Farmers Being Moved Aside by China's Real Estate Boom," New York Times, 8 December 2004, on-line edition;
52. see also Enoch Caudwell, "China's Landless," MRZINE (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org), 26 July 2005.
53. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 475, 484;
54. see Cooper, "Thinking about China," 493.
55. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 484;
56. see Cooper, "Thinking about China," 493-94.
57. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 44-45, 57-58.
58. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 479.
59. Quoted in Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, Chinese Labor and the WTO, 2004, www.ihlo.org, 12-13.
60. Linda Y. Yueh, "Wage Reforms in China during the 1990s," Asian Economic Journal 18, no. 2 (June 2004): 152-53.
61. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 469.
62. Another commentator, Mobo C.F. Gao, similarly claims that "the majority of the people including the rural residents are better fed and better clothed in post-Mao China." "China and Capitalism: If Market Capitalism Is Good for the West, Why Is Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics Bad?" Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 3 (September 2005): 514.
63. Robert Hunter Wade, "Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality?" World Development 32, no. 4 (April 2004): 572.
64. Ibid.
65. Jonathan Watts, "China Admits First Rise in Poverty since 1978," The Guardian, 20 July 2004, on-line edition.
66. Peter S. Goodman, "Rural Poor Aren't Sharing in Spoils of China's Changes," Washington Post, 12 July 2005, on-line edition.
67. Jinjun Xue and Wei Zhong, "Unemployment, Poverty and Income Disparity in Urban China," Asian Economic Journal 17, no. 4 (December 2003): 389, 397-404. The survey was conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, assisted by the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
68. Gao, "China and Capitalism," 511.
69. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 472-74, 477, 480-83;
70. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 490-91;
71. Gao, "Chine and Capitalism," 514.
72. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 490;
73. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 477.
74. Magdoff and Magdoff, "Approaching Socialism," 47.
75. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 478.
76. For our detailed analysis of both the 1997-98 crisis and mainstream responses to it, including our statistical evidence, see Burkett and Hart-Landsberg, Development, Crisis, and Class Struggle, chapters 11 to 14;
77. Martin Hart-Landsberg, "The Asian Crisis: Causes and Consequences," Against the Current, no. 73 (March-April 1998): 26-29;
78. Paul Burkett and Martin Hart-Landsberg, "East Asia and the Crisis of Development Theory," Journal of Contemporary Asia 28, no. 4 (1998): 435-56;
79. Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, "A Critique of the 'Mismatch Model,'" Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 31, no. 4 (October-December 1999): 37-43. We predicted the crisis in an article drafted in the summer of 1996, when right- and left-wing celebrations of the East Asian model were at their peak.
80. See Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, "Contradictions of Capitalist Industrialization in East Asia: A Critique of 'Flying Geese' Theories of Development," Economic Geography 74, no. 2 (April 1998): 87-110.
81. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 481.
82. Ibid., 481-82.
83. The share of China's exports going to the United States rose from 8.5 percent in 1985 to 29.1 percent in 2002. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 131.
84. For details, see Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, "China and the Dynamics of Transnational Capital Accumulation," paper presented at the conference on "The Korean Economy: Marxist Perspectives," Institute for Social Sciences, Gyeongsang University, Jinju, South Korea, 20 May 2005; forthcoming in Historical Materialism, 2006.
85. forthcoming in Historical Materialism, 2006.
86. Ibid.
87. See also, Prema-chandra Athukorala, "Product Fragmentation and Trade Patterns in East Asia," Working Paper no. 2003/21, Division of Economics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, October 2003;
88. Edward S. Steinfeld, "China's Shallow Integration: Networked Production and the New Challenges for Late Industrialization," World Development 32, no. 11 (November 2004): 1971-1987.
89. Asian Development Bank, Asia Economic Monitor, August 2005, 23 (http://aric.adb.org). For a detailed analysis of East Asia's tentative and uneven recovery from the crisis as of late 2000,
90. see Paul Burkett and Martin Hart-Landsberg, "Crisis and Recovery in East Asia: The Limits of Capitalist Development," Historical Materialism, no. 8 (summer 2001): 3-47.
91. Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, "Economic Crisis and Restructuring in South Korea: Beyond the Free Market-Statist Debate," Critical Asian Studies 33, no. 3 (September 2001): 403-30;
92. Martin Hart-Landsberg, "The South Korean Economy and U.S. Policy," Asian Perspective 28, no. 4 (2004): 89-117,
93. and "South Korea: The Unraveling of an Economy," MRZINE (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org), 15 August 2005.
94. Kim Ji-ho, "Morgan Stanley Warns of Economic Slowdown in China," Korea Herald, 24 March 2004, on-line edition.
95. Editorial, "Economy at the Crossroads," Korea Herald, 2 June 2005, on-line edition.
96. Kim Mi-hui, "Factories Relocating Abroad to Cut Costs," Korea Herald, 25 October 2003, on-line edition.
97. Asian Development Bank, Asia Economic Monitor, August 2005, 23.
98. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 490.
99. Kim Jae-kyoung, "Hardship More Serious Than 6 Years Ago," Korea Times, 26 May 2004, on-line edition.
100. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 482;
101. Gao, "China and Capitalism," 512-13.
102. Our book cited official government data that put the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs at 26 million. See Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 113, 127. The figure of "only" 15 million jobs lost is based on certain adjustments of the official data to take account of unregistered and nonurban manufacturing units.
103. See Judith Banister, "Manufacturing Employment and Compensation in China," Unpublished Report to the U.S. Department of Labor, December 2004, p. 66 and passim.
104. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 490-91;
105. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 469.
106. The Economist, "The Struggle of the Champions," 8 January 2005, 60.
107. Steinfeld, "China's Shallow Integration," 1976.
108. Ibid., 1971-1972, 1983.
109. Ibid., 1983.
110. The Economist, "The Struggle of the Champions," 60;
111. Paul S. Ciccantell and Stephen G. Bunker, "The Economic Ascent of China and the Potential for Restructuring the Capitalist World-Economy," Journal of World-Systems Research 10, no. 3 (fall 2004): 565-89.
112. The Economist, "The Struggle of the Champions," 61.
113. Gilboy, "The Myth behind China's Miracle."
114. Dic Lo, "China, the 'East Asian Model' and Late Development," Working Paper no. 131, Department of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, November 2003.
115. Steinfeld, "China's Shallow Integration," 1981.
116. Roach, "What if China Slows?"
117. Steinfeld, "China's Shallow Integration," 1980.
118. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 117-20.
119. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform," 487.
120. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 494.
121. Gao, "China and Capitalism," 513.
122. Lippit, "The Political Economy of China's Economic Reform."
123. Ibid., 472.
124. Ibid., 471. Similarly, ignoring Cuba's demonstrated successes, Lippit strangely appeals to FDA-approved drug development costs as proof that socialist health care and pharmaceuticals development is "devoid of any semblance of practicality" (ibid., 486). Evidently exploitation by the transnational drug companies for several more centuries is more practical for workers than developing their own health care system.
125. "Marx to Bracke" (5 May 1875), in Marx and Engels, Selected Correspondence (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), 278.
126. See Paul Burkett and Martin Hart-Landsberg, "Progressive Capitalism, Crisis, and Class Struggle: Lessons from Japan's Production Control and Democracy Movements," Capital and Class, no. 79 (spring 2003): 25-54;
127. and Martin Hart-Landsberg, Rush to Development: Economic Change and Political Struggle in South Korea (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1993), chapters 5 and 6.
128. See Paul Burkett, Marx and Nature (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), chapter 13;
129. also "Marx's Vision of Sustainable Human Development," Monthly Review, forthcoming, October 2005.
130. Lui, "Bringing Class Back In," 518-20
131. Edward Cody, "Workers in China Shed Passivity, Spate of Walkouts Shakes Factories," Washington Post, 27 November 2004, on-line edition.
132. Neil Gough, "Trouble on the Line," Time Asia, 31 January 2005, on-line edition.
133. Cooper, "Thinking about China," 492.