China: The Continuing Revolution

I.    History and Environment

A.  Resources -- About 1.2 billion people, more than one-fifth of the world's population, but only 10 percent of land suitable for cultivation. Average farmer works less than one acre, compared with 2 in India and 100 in U.S.

B.  Early History - Chinese civilization arose between 3000 and 2000 B.C. in Yellow River basin, and environment required central institutions. Feudal states under Shang dynasty, and empire was established during Qin (which built Great Wall). Cultural unification under Han.

C.  Technological Achievements - Imperial China was most technologically advanced and literate culture in the world. Had bronze weapons and tools, gunpowder, movable type, hemp-spinning machines, agricultural and medical techniques, algebra, and trigonometry long (often hundreds of years) before the West.

D.  Causes of Stagnation

1.   High-Level Equilibrium Trap --Mark Elvin (historian at Australian National University) argued that early development of agricultural and medical technology, limited urbanization, and preference for early marriages and large families caused excessive population growth, strained raw material base, reduced value of labor, and reduced demand for labor-saving technology. Doesn’t explain why stagnation started before 16th century.

2.   Nature of Discovery - China didn’t develop scientific method (Lin Yifu)

3.   Mongol Domination - Harsh taxation and servitude during 1234-1368, but the economy was temporarily opened to foreign trade and technology.

4.   Opium and Colonialism - Opium addiction reached crisis pro­por­tions by 1700s. Efforts to prevent imports from India led to Opium Wars with Britain during 1839-1842.

5.    (Update) In Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, economic historian David Landes explained the absence of a Chinese Industrial Revolution in terms of excessive government and market inefficiency: "The Chinese state was always stepping in to interfere with private enterprise..."
On the other hand, Perkins found that around 1800, there was one government worker for every 32,000 people in China or for every 700 people in Europe.  Insufficient expansion of infrastructure.

 

E.   Republic

F.   Yenan

 II. Importing the Soviet Model, 1949-1957

III. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960

IV. Readjustment and Recovery, 1961-1965

  V. The Cultural Revolution 1966-1976

VI. Transition of Power: 1976-1978

VII. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (1979-Present)

A.  Ideology of Pragmatism

1962    Deng Xiaoping proverb: "Yellow cat, black cat, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat." Deng was known as a pragmatic leader.

1978    Deng restated his philosophy in two compact slogans: "Practice is the sole criterion of truth" and "Seek truth from facts."

1979 Democracy Wall movement crushed. Deng issued new ideological decree—truth sought from facts, but only within Four Cardinal Principles: follow the "socialist road," the "dictatorship of the proletariat," the Communist Party, and Marxist-Leninist and Mao Zedong thought.

1983 Deng declared that Taiwan (later added Hong Kong) could remain autonomous and capitalist when reunited with China—one country, two systems.

1984  Professor Li Yining developed a Marxian rationale for market reforms—China is still operating at the primary stage of socialism.

1987  Premier Zhao Ziyang adopted primary stage thesis at 13th Party Congress; China should develop socialism with Chinese characteristics

1989  Hu Yaobang died; students held memorial service in Tienanmen Square. Demonstrators remained 6 weeks, until troops entered the square on June 4. Recentralization of authority.

1992  Deng Xiaoping visited special economic zones in southern China, promoting reform.

1997                Deng Xiaoping died; successors declared allegiance to his pragmatic line.

2000  President Jiang Zemin introduced the 'Three Represents'. “The CPC will remain successful…so long as the Party represents the requirements of developing China's advanced social productive forces, the progressive course of China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the Chinese people.” Party membership open to entrepreneurs.

2002 - Hu Jintao became President and Communist Party chief

2003 - Wen Jiabao became Prime Minister. Hu and Wen have used a lot of socialist rhetoric, and made promises to take care of the poorest people in society. At the same time, they have supported approval of a new Property Law, which would stabilize the condition of the wealthy.

2004 - The Chinese constitution was amended to say that private property was “not to be encroached upon”.

2005 - The government published a draft of a new property law, inviting discussion.

2007 (March) - New property law finally adopted. Hu and Wen have taken a centrist position, protecting property rights for the rising middle class and farmers, while promoting a "harmonious society" that strives to distribute wealth more equitably, to increase social expenditures on health and education, and to alleviate some of the excesses of pollution and corruption that have accompanied rapid growth.
Read more about it here:
 http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/16/asia/web-0315china.php

2007 (November) Implementation of the Property Law continues slowly with continued resistance. For example, the law called for a land registration system, but none has been established. Without clear title to their land, farmers can't use it as backing for loans.
see much more here:
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=898&Itemid=31

 

B.  Agriculture

1.   Traditional system—small-scale subsistence farming.

2.   During 1953-1957, small farms merged into Soviet-style collectives.

3.   In 1958, collectives merged into people's communes, with production brigades and production teams evidently.

4.   During 1961-1965, policy of "Agriculture First."

a.   Communes reduced in size.

b.   Incomes linked to performance of production teams and individuals according to work-point system.

c.   Families allowed to operate small private plots.

5.   During 1966-1978, progress prevented by Cultural Revolution and the post-Mao succession crisis.

6.   Late 1978, return to reforms of early 1960s, and experimentation with system of contracting land and output quotas to individual households.

7.   Household Responsibility System actively promoted by government, beginning in 1981. Covered 98% of rural population within 3 years.

a.   Communal fields were divided into small family plots.

b.   Households contracted with production team to cultivate a tract of land in exchange for fixed quotas of certain agricultural products to the team at fixed prices.

c.   System modified in 1984-1985: communes abolished; land ownership transferred local villages and townships; allowable terms of the contracts extended to 15 years (30 years after 1995); household could transfer its contracted land to another household.

d.   System was big initial success, based on stronger incentives and more even distribution of labor effort over the land. By 1985, agriculture returned to lower trend rate of growth.

C.  Industrial Reform

1.   In 1978, Sichuan profit retention experiment  leading to industrial responsibility system, whereby state enterprises negotiate "profit and loss contract" agreements with supervisory officials. Some 6,600 enterprises covered by 1990; all covered by the end of 1992.

2.   New draft of constitution in 1978 legalized small-scale private enterprise. During 1978-1983, number of private businesses grew from 100,000 to 5.8 million.

3.   In 1984, ownership of rural commune industrial holdings transferred to the new units of local government, creating township and village enterprises (TVEs). These grew rapidly in output and efficiency:

a.   Kinship links and implicit property rights.

b.   Public finance decentralized since 1984.

c.   Communities with TVEs compete for investors.

d.   TVEs supply goods and services neglected by old system.

e.   Supply and technology alliances with state industries and foreign investors.

4.   Proportion of unprofitable state-owned enterprises (SOEs) increased from 10 percent in 1985 to 28 percent in 1990, to nearly 50 percent in 1995. Subsidies contributed to acceleration of inflation.  9th  Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) promised financial support to only 1,000 of the 13,000 large and medium-sized enterprises. UPDATE: Since 1994, SOEs have been allowed to convert to worker-owned producer cooperatives (76% have done so in Sichuan).  Workers do not have portable ownership rights.
UPDATE: 1999 reform allowed indebted SOEs, in cooperation with their lenders (state-owned banks), to convert part of their debt to equity, held by the lending bank or by an asset management company.  The latter has authority, as an owner, to restructure the enterprise.

D.  Financial Reform

E.   Population Growth and Employment

F.   Open Door Policy

1.   International contacts between people—officials, tourists, students, scholars, etc.

2.   Foreign trade and investment rights, especially in Special Economic Zones.
China is largest recipient of foreign investment in Asia, and second largest in the world.

VIII.    How Far Can One Leg Go?

A.  Chinese advantages in the coming century:

1.   Long and stable cultural heritage.

2.   Strong momentum of self-sustained growth.

3.   Untapped natural resources.

B.  Major challenges:

1.   Breaking the cycle of rising and falling inflation.

2.   Coping with unemployment arising from industrial restructuring and displacement of surplus rural labor.

3.   Completing transition to a competitive market economy, relying on comparative advantage.

4.   Strengthening the "one leg" of economic reform with political reforms

IX. UPDATE: China’s Accession to the WTO

A.  Sequence—

1986    China began negotiations to rejoin the GATT, the WTO’s precursor.

11/99   China reached bilateral agreement on the terms of WTO entry with U.S.

9/00  U.S. Congress granted permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) to China.

12/01   Chinese official accession to the WTO.

B.  Commitments Under U.S.-China Agreement
(summary of  this document)

1.   TARIFFS—China will cut tariffs from an average of 24.6% to 9.4 percent overall, eliminating all tariffs on computers, telecommunications equipment, and other high-tech products.

2.   AGRICULTURE—China will eliminate export subsidies, cut average tariffs on U.S. agricultural products from 31% to 17.5% in 2004, and eliminate health barriers not based on scientific evidence.

3.   QUOTAS AND LICENSES--China will eliminate these restrictions with phase-ins limited to five years.

4.   TRADE/DISTRIBUTION—Over three years, foreign companies will gain rights to handle their own foreign trade transactions in China and to own and operate distribution networks, warehousing, trucking, and air courier services.

5.   SERVICES--China will phase out most restrictions banking, insurance, telecommunications, professional services such as accountancy and legal consulting, business and computer related services, motion pictures, etc.

6.   STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES--China will ensure that state-owned enterprises will make purchases and sales based on commercial considerations, such as price, quality, availability and marketability, allowing U.S. firms to compete for sales.

C.          Expected Impact on China

1.According to a 2000 World Bank study available here, the biggest “winning” sector from trade liberalization will be Wearing Apparel, where accession will cause an additional 206% of 1995-2005 output growth and 132% of skilled employment growth.  The biggest “losing” sector will be automobiles, where production will fall by 4% instead of rising by 190%, and employment will fall 51% instead of growing 53%.  Overall, employment should grow more with liberalization than without it.

2.On the other hand, WTO also pushes SOE reform, which caused 7 million people to lose jobs in state-run businesses by 2000, bringing the number of unemployed in China to an estimated 100 million. 

D.  Record of implementation:
In a December 2003 Report to Congress, the U.S. Trade Representative found the following:

“China’s WTO implementation progress must be measured by the degree to which China has begun to institutionalize market mechanisms and to make its trade regime more predictable and transparent. By that score, the shortcomings in China’s WTO implementation are noteworthy…

China’s uneven and incomplete WTO compliance record can no longer be attributed to start-up problems..

”China’s efforts were most problematic in the areas of agriculture, services, enforcement of intellectual property rights and transparency…

 

“This year has also seen an increasing use of industrial policies to encourage domestic industries at the expense of… foreign businesses… This … is particularly apparent in the automotive sector, where a proposed industrial policy threatens to undercut many U.S. industry gains in China’s market. In addition, … a number of important commitments … will face implementation deadlines in 2004, … trading rights and distribution services being the most critical... It will require vigilance by the United States and other WTO members to ensure China fulfills these commitments.”

E.   Current Questions

1.   When will China fulfill its commitments under WTO accession?

2.   Will domestic and foreign investment create enough jobs to absorb the losses due to SOE reform and stiffer foreign competition?

3.   Will foreign influence encourage more entrepreneurial risk taking in China, or will it create additional pressure for caution?