The rise of the working class and the future of the Chinese revolution

Monthly Review

Volumn 63, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 38-51

  Li, Minqi ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 79960537347     PISSN: 00270520     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.14452/MR-063-02-2011-06_3     Document Type: Review

References (32)

1. On the class contradictions under socialism and the favorable impact of the iron rice bowl on working-class power, see Minqi Li, The Rise of Chim and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy (London: Pluto Press; New York: Monthly Review Press, 2008), 50-59.
2. National Bureau of Statistics, the People's Republic of China, Statistical Year Book of China 2009, http://stats.gov.cn.
3. See Research Group of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "A Research Report on the Current Structure of Social Strata in China," in Social Blue Book 2002: Analyses and Predictions of China's Social Conditions, ed. Ru Xin, Lu Xueyi, and Li Peilin (Beijing: Social Sciences Literature Press, 2002), 115-132.
4. Li, ibid., 89, 108.
5. On the Chinese workers' conditions, see Dale Wen, "China Copes with Globalization," A report by the International Forum on Globalization (2005), http://ifg.org;
6. Martin HartLandsberg, "The Chinese Reform Experience: A Critical Assessment," Review of Radical Political Economics, published online before print, September 28, 2010.
7. For a summary of Chinese media's descriptions of the "second generation migrant workers," see the clause on Xinshengdai Nongmingong or "A New Generation of Migrant Workers" by the Baidu online encyclopedia, http://baike. baidu.com.
8. John Chan, "Honda Rocked by Further Strikes in China," The World Socialist Website, June 10, 2010, http://wsws.org.
9. For statistics on non-agricultural employment see World Bank, World Development Indicators, http://databank. worldbank.org.
10. In October 2010, the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao called for "political reform" when he was interviewed by the American Television network CNN. See Jonathan Fenby, "Political Reform Is China's Fatal Flaw," Financial Times, October 15, 2010.
11. Zhang Yaozu, "The Evolution and Development of the Working Class Over the Six Decades of New China," May 2010, http://zggr.net.
12. Zhong Qinan, "The Class Experience of the Chongqing Kangmingsi Workers' Struggle to Defend Their Proper Rights," May 2010, http://zggr.net.
13. Pei Haide, "A Study of Two Cases of Struggle by the Urban Traditional Workers," May 2010, http://zggr.net.
14. National Bureau of Statistics; ibid.
15. Another commonly used measure of inequality is the Gini coefficient If Gini coefficient equals 100, it indicates complete inequality; if Gini coefficient equals 0, it indicates complete equality. According to the World Bank data, China's Gini coefficient in 2005 was 41.5, compared to 40.8 for the United States (2000) and 36.8 for India (2005) See World Bank, ibid.
16. Yuzhi Zhang, and Zhongfu Jiang, "The Domestic Governance Countermeasure in Order to Enhance Soft Power of China Communist Party," International Journal of Business and Management 5, no. 7 (July 2010): 170-74, http://ccsenet.org.
17. Qi Zhongfeng, "Economic Estimations of the Size of Rent-Seeking in the Period of Market Transition," Commercial Times, 2006 (21), http://cnmoker.org.
18. Wang Xiaolu, "Grey Income and National Income Distribution," August 2010, http://view.news.qq.com.
19. Anonymous, "China's Top Ten Families," September 2010, http://huayue.net.
20. Sun Liping, "The Chinese Society Is Decaying at an Accelerating Rate," February 2011, http://hua-yue.net.
21. Zac Hambides, 'China's Growing Army of Unemployed Graduates," The World Socialist Website, October 4, 2010, http://wsws.org.
22. The college graduate claims to have an annual income of 50,000 yuan after taxes and deductions. By comparison, in 2008, the average annual pretax wage for China's formal sector employees was about 29,000 yuan. See National Bureau of Statistics, ibid.
23. Anonymous, 'A College Graduate's Perspective: I Can Barely Survive-The Miserable Life with a Monthly Salary of 4,000 Yuan," March 2008, http://bbs1. people.com.
24. Mao Zedong was bom December 26, 1883, and died September 9, 1976. See Lao Shi, "People Commemorate the 117th Anniversary of Mao Zedong's Birth Throughout the Country," February 2001, http://wyzxsx.com;
25. Xu Rong and Zuo Yuanyuan, "Mao Zedong's Hometown Becomes the Tourists' Favorite-680, 000 People Visited Shaoshan During the New Year," February 2011, http://redchinacn.com.
26. See Martin Wolf, 'How China Must Change If It Is to Sustain Its Ascent," Financial Times, September 22, 2010, 11.
27. Of course, working-class households save a portion of their income. On the other hand, capitalists also consume. At the macro-level, working-class savings are roughly offset by the capitalist consumption.
28. To see why an investment-GDP ratio of 36 percent is needed to stabilize the capitalist economy, consider that if an investment ratio is greater than 36 percent then net investment as a ratio to GDP will be greater than 21 percent (after subtracting depreciation). Since the initial capital-output ratio is set at 3: 1, if net investment is greater than 21 percent of GDP, the capital stock will grow at more than 7 percent (7=21/3), that is, faster than GDP. This implies rising capital-output ratio or falling rate of return on capital.
29. This rule of thumb implies very rapid energy efficiency improvement and substitutions of coal by other energies that may not materialize. In the future, energy efficiency growth and energy substitution may be somewhat accelerated. But world oil production is likely to peak in the near future. Peak oil will reduce China's oil consumption and impose an additional constraint on China's economic growth.
30. If China's remaining recoverable coal turns out to be significantly greater than its official reserve, then the additional carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning would make any reasonable climate stabilization virtually impossible.
31. International Finance Corporation, et al., Charting Our Water Future, Executive Summary, 2009, http://mckinsey com.
32. Liming Ye, Jun Yang, Ann Verdoodt Rachid Moussadek, and Eric Van Ranst "China's Food Security Threatened by Soil Degradation and Biofuels Production," August 1-6, 2010, paper presented at the 19th World Congress of Soil Science, Brisbane, Australia; The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, "Impact of Climate Change on Chinese Agriculture," 2010, http://chinaclimate-adapt.org.