Beyond the sprouts of Capitalism: toward an understanding of China’s historical political economy and its relationship to contemporary China

Beyond the sprouts of Capitalism: toward an understanding of China’s historical political economy and its relationship to contemporary China
Beyond the sprouts of Capitalism: toward an understanding of China’s historical political economy and its relationship to contemporary China
First published	3rd March, 2021
Source	Monthly Review

The contemporary political economy of the People's Republic of China, the nature of the Chinese system, has been the subject of much discussion and debate in mainstream academic, media, and political circles, as well as on the left.^[1] Since the end of the 1970s, China has pursued policies of “reform and opening” (gaige kaifang, 改革開放) to develop its economy, a process that has resulted in the massive growth of production, China’s emergence as a major player in global trade, and the lifting of around 800 million people out of poverty, while at the same time generating serious problems of inequality, corruption, and environmental stress. At the heart of this project has been the decision by the Communist Party, originally under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping, then carrying on through successive changes of leadership, to use the mechanisms of the marketplace to develop the productive economy. How should this situation be characterized? Is it capitalism, state capitalism, market socialism?^[2]

Notes

↑ See, for example, Yan Xuetong (2019). Leadership and the rise of Great Powers. Princeton: Princeton University Press; Zhang Weiwei (2012). The China Wave: rise of a civilizational state. Hackensack, New Jersey: World Century Publishing Corporation; Yukon Huang (2017). Cracking the China conundrum: why conventional economic wisdom is wrong. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Wang Hui (2016). China’s Twentieth Century. London: Verso Books; Charles Horner (2009). Rising China and its postmodern fate. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.
↑ The argument that China has capitulated to a capitalist system has been made many times since the beginning of the reform era. See, inter alia, William Hinton (1990). The Great Reversal: the privatization of China, 1978–1989. New York: Monthly Review Press; Eli Friedman (2020-07-15). "Why China is capitalist: toward an anti-nationalist anti-imperialism" Spectre. Retrieved 2023-01-18.

[1] See, for example, Yan Xuetong (2019). Leadership and the rise of Great Powers. Princeton: Princeton University Press; Zhang Weiwei (2012). The China Wave: rise of a civilizational state. Hackensack, New Jersey: World Century Publishing Corporation; Yukon Huang (2017). Cracking the China conundrum: why conventional economic wisdom is wrong. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Wang Hui (2016). China’s Twentieth Century. London: Verso Books; Charles Horner (2009). Rising China and its postmodern fate. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

[2] The argument that China has capitulated to a capitalist system has been made many times since the beginning of the reform era. See, inter alia, William Hinton (1990). The Great Reversal: the privatization of China, 1978–1989. New York: Monthly Review Press; Eli Friedman (2020-07-15). "Why China is capitalist: toward an anti-nationalist anti-imperialism" Spectre. Retrieved 2023-01-18.

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