China, capitalist accumulation, and labor

Monthly Review

Volumn 59, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 17-39

  Hart Landsberg, Martin ^a   Burkett, Paul ^b  

^a LEWIS AND CLARK COLLEGE   (United States)

^b INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34249739699     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-059-01-2007-05_2     Document Type: Review

References (64)

1. We discuss these points in detail in Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, China and Socialism (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2005);
2. "China and the Dynamics of Transnational Accumulation, Causes and Consequences of Global Restructuring," Historical Materialism 14, no. 3 (2006).
3. Indeed, many believe that China's emergence as a world economic power is creating a progressive alternative to the U.S.-dominated regime of neoliberal economics and military unilateralism.
4. Ajit K. Ghose, "Employment in China," Employment Analysis Unit, Employment Strategy Department, Employment Strategy Papers, 2005/14, ILO, 1, http://www.ilo.org.
5. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 48;
6. OECD, Economic Surveys: China (Paris: OECD, 2005), 133.
7. John Whalley and Xian Xin, "China's FDI and Non-FDI Economies and the Sustainability of Future High Chinese Growth," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series, Number 12249, May 2006,
8. Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism, 121;
9. Steven S. Roach "What if China Slows," Global Economic Forum, Morgan Stanley, May 23, 2005. There is a similar trend with imports; in 2004, foreign invested enterprises accounted for approximately 60 percent of China's total imports. Whalley and Xin, "China's FDI," 5.
10. Whalley and Xin, "China's FDI," 9. However, some analysts regard these figures as upper bound estimates. See, for example, Lee Branstetter and Nicholas Lardy, "China's Embrace of Globalization," National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper Series, Number 12373, July 2006, 19.
11. Stephen S. Roach, "China's Control Problem," Global Economic Forum, Morgan Stanley, July 21, 2006.
12. Jephraim P. Gundzik, "What a US Recession Means for China," Asia Times Online, September 27, 2006, http://www.atimes.com.
13. Gundzik, "US Recession."
14. David Lague, "China Overtakes U.S. as Tech Supplier," International Herald Tribune, December 12, 2005;
15. ChinaDaily.com, "China's high-tech export grows 43.5% in past five years," January 29, 2006. Approximately 42 percent of China's electronics and information technology exports are sold in the United States; beginning in 2002, China became the largest exporter of these products to the United States (Branstetter and Lardy, "China's Embrace of Globalization," 36).
16. Branstetter and Lardy, "China's Embrace of Globalization," 37-38.
17. Branstetter and Lardy, "China's Embrace," 38. The computer industry is a noteworthy example. Approximately 80 percent of the world's notebook and desktop computers are assembled in China, but most of the production is controlled by Taiwanese firms operating as original design manufacturers (ODMs). As a consequence, eight of China's top ten exporters are Taiwanese companies that supply "branded PC sellers such as Dell with unbranded computers and components." These Taiwanese firms may produce on the mainland but most of their components are supplied by other smaller firms that operate in other countries. As one analyst explains, "Almost all mainland China brings to the industry is cheap land and even cheaper labor. China is the manufacturing center of the global computer industry, yet it adds little value and therefore makes little profit." According to another, "There are no Chinese ODMs and there are no significant Chinese suppliers to the Taiwanese ODMs or to their suppliers." Tom Miller, "Manufacturing That Doesn't Compute," Asia Times Online, November 22, 2006, http://www.atimes.com.
18. Branstetter and Lardy, "China's Embrace," 39-40; George G. Gilboy, "The Myth Behind China's Miracle," Foreign Affairs (July-August, 2004).
19. People's Daily Online, "Nearly 90 pet of China's Electronics Exports are from Foreign Ventures," April 15, 2006.
20. Economist, "The Struggle of Champions," January 6, 2005, 59-61;
21. Gilboy, "The Myth Behind China's Miracle." For example, as a result of its 2005 acquisition of IBM's PC unit, Lenovo became the world's third largest PC brand by volume. However, its profits have been on the decline. More importantly, "Like its rivals, Lenovo employs Taiwanese ODMs in the mainland to manufacture its branded computers....The company's headquarters have moved to the United States, and US engineers are largely responsible for developing new products (in conjunction with their ODM suppliers)." Tom Miller, "Manufacturing That Doesn't Compute."
22. Barry Naughton, "China's Emergence and Prospects as a Trading Nation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, no. 2 (1996);
23. Economist, "The Struggle of Champions," 61.
24. Asian Development Bank, Key Indicators of Developing Asian and Pacific Countries 2006, http://www.adb.org; Asian Development Bank,
25. Asian Development Outlook 2006, 3, http://www.adb.org.
26. Prema-chandra Athukorala and Nobuaki Yamashita, "Production Fragmentation and Trade Integration," North American Journal of Economics and Finance, 17 (2006): 241.
27. Francis Ng and Alexander Yeats, "Major Trade Trends in East Asia, What are their Implications for Regional Cooperation and Growth?" Policy Research Working Paper 3084, World Bank Development Research Group, June 2003, 60. The rest of East Asia includes Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
28. Athukorala and Yamashita, "Production Fragmentation," 246-47.
29. UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report 2002 (New York United Nations, 2002), 75.
30. Anoop Singh, et al., Stabilization and Reform in Latin America, occasional paper no. 238, International Monetary Fund, February 2005, chapter 2, 7, www.imf.org.
31. Neu Gough "Trouble on the Line," Time Asia, January 31, 2005.
32. John S. McClenahen, "Outsourcing," IndustryWeek.com, July 1, 2006.
33. Anita Chan, "A 'Race to the Bottom,'" China Perspectives, no. 46, (March-April 2003): 43.
34. Ching Kwan Lee, '"Made in China,'" presentation at the 2004 Mansfield Conference, The University of Montana, Missoula, April 18-20, 2004, http://www.umt.edu, 2; Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, Chinese Labor and the WTO, 2004, http://www.ihlo.org, 22.
35. For a more complete examination of the social costs inherent in China's growth as well as a refutation of arguments that present these costs as temporary, see Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett, "China and Socialism: Engaging the Issues," Critical Asian Studies 37, no. 4 (December 2005).
36. Studies done by the ILO, Asian Development Bank, and IMF all present very similar employment trends. See Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets in Asia (Manila: Asian Development Bank, 2005),
37. and Ray Books and Ran Tao, China's Labor Market Performance and Challenges, IMF Working Paper, WP/03/210, 2003.
38. Ghose, "Employment in China," 6.
39. Howard W. French, "Letter from China," International Herald Tribune, December 14, 2006, http://www.iht.com.
40. Ghose, "Employment in China," 8, 12, 13.
41. Edward Cody, "Students Grow Desperate Over China's Tight Job Market," Washington Post, November 24, 2006;
42. Guan Xiaofeng and Wang ShanShan, "Job Shortage to Affect Graduates," China Daily, November 29, 2006, http://www.chinadaily. com.cn.
43. Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets in Asia, 22.
44. Jesus Felipe and Rana Hasan, "The Challenge of Job Creation in Asia," Asian Development Bank, ERD Policy Brief, Economics and Research Department Series No. 44, April 2006, 2.
45. Some countries limit the definition of informal employment to only self-employed and unpaid family workers, while other countries also include wage workers at small and/or unregistered enterprises. Indonesia is an example of the former, India of the latter. Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets in Asia, 18.
46. Gianni Rosas and Giovanna Rossignnotti, "Starting the New Millennium Right," International Labor Review 144, no. 2 (2005): 144. Southeast Asia is defined to include Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
47. Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets in Asia, 18, 20: Simon Long, "Now for the Hard Part: A Survey of Business in India," Economist, June 3, 2006, 10;
48. "The Self-Employed in Plight," Korea Herald, February 12, 2005, http://www.koreaherald.co.kr.
49. Sang-hwan Jang, "Continuing Suicides Among Laborers in Korea," Labor History 45, no. 3, 2004, 280-81;
50. "Labor Group Seeks Equality for All Workers," Korea Herald, January 16, 2003, http://www.koreaherald.co.kr.
51. For details on forced retirements as a method of lowering labor costs, see Samuel Len, "Job Cuts Follow Recovery in South Korea," New York Times, December 9, 2003;
52. Joonmo Cho and Sunweong Kim, "On Using Mandatory Retirement to Reduce Workforce in Korea," International Economic Journal 19, no. 2 (June 2005): 283-303;
53. Data on India and the Philippines comes from Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets, 19, 56.
54. Kim Jung Min, "Victims of Efficiency," Far Eastern Economic Review, January 29, 2004;
55. Keith Bradsher, "After an Exodus of Jobs, A Recovery in Taiwan," New York Times, March 19, 2004;
56. Trish Saywell, "A Question of Jobs," Far Eastern Economic Review, January 15, 2004;
57. "The Jobless Boom," Economist, January 14, 2006, 47.
58. Felipe and Hasan, "The Challenge of Job Creation in Asia," 5; Asian Development Bank, Labor Markets in Asia, 30;
59. Karl Marx, Wage-Labor and Capital (New York International Publishers, 1976), 45;
60. Saywell, "A Question of Jobs"; Joanna Slater, "The Dangers of Jobless Growth," Far Eastern Economic Review (May 6, 2004).
61. See David Harvey, The New Imperialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
62. and A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
63. Wayne Arnold, "In Indonesia, Unions Hit a Roadblock," New York Times, May 21, 2004.
64. Harry Magdoff and Paul M. Sweezy, Stagnation and the Financial Explosion (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987), 203, 205.