Lost in revolution and reform: The socioeconomic pains of China's red guards generation, 1966–1996

This paper examines why the socioeconomic life of China's Red Guards generation has been difficult in both Mao's time and in the post‐Mao reform era. It shows that Mao's Cultural Revolution destroyed the normalcy of society and prevented this generation from securing the life they expected. When reform moved China toward a market economy, their past misfortunes produced their present disadvantages. Their limited education disqualified them from the opportunities of employment and career promotion; their protracted sent‐down to the countryside postponed their marriage and normal social life; and their longtime economic hardships debilitated their market competitiveness. Mao's revolution made them ill‐prepared for the coming economic liberty, yet the post‐Mao reform, instead of compensating them for their distress, left them behind when it pursued market efficiency.     

China's Prolonged Stability and Political Future: Same political system,different policies and methods

Contrary to the earlier political upheavals which culminated in the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement, China has achieved an extended stability in the 1990s. This paper argues that the prolonged stability resulted from a set of changes in China's state‐society relations, and much of it was related to the 1989 movement. After the 1989 movement, the CCP veterans selected younger leaders who were both reform-minded and had a Machiavellian sense of politics. This new leadership skillfully managed the economy and contained dissident activities from public attention. Reform and the booming economy also provided many opportunities for intellectuals and students and turned them from the earlier economic 'losers' into the current 'winners'. As market forces penetrated into China more deeply and the state no longer took charge of everything as it used to, the Chinese became less interested in national politics, and political conflicts localized. This paper also argues that although China's state‐society relations underwent great changes, the state still bases its legitimacy on performance and is thus intrinsically unstable. A political reform that aims at changing the basis of state legitimation becomes crucial.     

家务劳动再分配的政策探索——日本“高龄女性贫困”问题的反思

进入深度老龄化社会的日本,"高龄女性贫困"的倾向日渐凸显。究其政策原因,在于长期以来优先对经济发展投资,将育儿养老等再生产领域的社会支出压缩到最低限度。由此形成的男性参与社会经济活动从事有酬劳动、女性承担再生产领域的家务劳动从事无酬劳动的格局,虽然使日本创造了快速经济发展的奇迹,但其代价是牺牲了一代女性参与政治、经济、社会活动的权利与机遇,并引发了当前的"高龄女性贫困"问题。近年来,日本注重探索家务劳动再分配政策路径,通过推进男女机会平等政策改革,提高家庭福利水平,改善女性劳动环境,防止"高龄女性贫困"问题继续蔓延。     

Hidden Income and Occupational Background: evidence from Guangzhou

Using a unique dataset based on a survey conducted by the Guangzhou Land Resources and Housing Administrative Bureau from November 2009 to January 2010, this article examines the sources and distribution of the hidden income of residents from different occupational backgrounds, taking into consideration their explicit income and other socio-economic characteristics. The results show that government officials not only had the highest but also the most stable hidden income, followed by employees in state-owned enterprises and employees in colleges or research institutions. Among government officials, those holding higher-level positions possessed more hidden income than those in lower-level positions. These findings have implications for China's labour market, taxation and resource allocation, and need to be taken into consideration in future economic and political policy designs and implementations.     

试论第一次国共合作时期新桂系的两面性

新桂系作为地主资产阶级的军事政治集团,他们参加国共合作的大革命,为巩固两广革命根据地,胜利进行北伐战争做出一定的贡献。但同时又追随蒋介石发动“四·一二”反革命政变,成为屠杀共产党和革命群众的历史罪人。新桂系由加入革命阵营到积极北伐,最后到叛变革命的政治嬗变,有着其深刻的历史和社会根源,除其作为地主资产阶级军事政治集团的封建性和阶级本性外,其投机革命的两面性则是重要的原因。     

The political economy of Taiwan's mainland policy

The emerging patterns of the cross‐strait interaction present a perplexing duality, revealing both the trends toward closer economic convergence and greater political divergence. Taiwan's mainland policy is both the manifestation and the catalyst of the two contradictory processes. It is the locus of confrontation of the various economic, social, and political forces that propels the two concurrent processes. It has been propelled by the epic changes in the global political economy, the market‐oriented reform in China, and Taiwan's economic restructuring process. It has also been prompted by the perceived challenges and opportunities brought about by the transition to the post‐Cold War era, the unraveling of structural conflicts between a status‐quo power (i.e., the US) and a rising power (i.e., the PRC) and by the politics of political succession within the CCP. In more immediate terms, it has been driven by the power struggle over political succession within the KMT, the bureaucratic process, the interest group politics, the partisan politics in both the electoral and legislative arenas, and the unfolding of the national identity crisis during Taiwan's recent transition to democracy.     

China after Deng: Some perspectives∗

Deng Xiaoping's succession arrangement is different from the typical practice of the supreme leader of a dictatorship. Instead of occupying the highest leadership position himself until his death, Deng has let his “successor” assume office as the supreme leader while he is still alive and influential. Such an arrangement will help avoid a succession crisis and political upheavals upon Deng's death. In addition, the current market‐oriented economic reforms are very unlikely to be reversed in post‐Deng's China because of four factors: (1) public support of the reforms; (2) the vested interest of the “prince party” in the reforms; (3) the new leadership's commitment to the reforms; and (4) the constitutionalization of the reforms. However, there are three major sources of social unrest, which may lead to some political turbulence in the post‐Deng period. These sources are the “June 4th Incident” of 1989, public demand for an end of corruption and for political liberalization, and some socio‐economic problems brought about by the on‐going economic reforms. Although there will be periodical events of socio‐political turbulence, they are unlikely to drag China into a long period of instability or lead to a split of the nation.     

农业劳动价值萎缩与农业体面劳动困境:关联逻辑与双重治理

与其他学者观点不同,在马克思看来农业劳动价值萎缩是资本诞生后工农业和城乡分离必然带来的结果。立足马克思的劳动价值理论分析,农业劳动价值萎缩必然带来的是农民经济收入减少以及由此造成的收入不可预期,而这与影响农业体面劳动的关键因素是一致的,据此农业劳动价值萎缩和农业体面劳动困境之间存在着深刻的关联逻辑。当代中国农业劳动价值和体面问题主要表现在农村青壮年不断外流、农民工返乡从事农业生产积极性低、农村老弱留守抗风险能力低等方面,事实上这些表现与家庭联产承包无法有效匹配市场、劳动力与市场脱钩、涉农企业利润压缩以及家庭社会伦理因素密切相关。新时代要破解这一难题需要坚持农业劳动价值和体面劳动双重治理的思路,在宏观层面全面深化农村经济体制的市场化改革,在中观层面需要从农村基础设施、企业和媒体角度不断优化涉农环境,在微观层面需要全面加强农民教育不断激发农民的主体性意识。     

Business as usual: The dynamics of government‐business relations in the Hong Kong special administrative region

This is an attempt to evaluate the implications of Hong Kong's political transition to post‐colonial rule for economic governance in the SAR beyond the ‘Beijing versus Hong Kong’ perspective. The article examines the changing government‐business dynamics in Hong Kong after the reversion by focusing on three inter‐related dimensions: economic ideology; institutional and policy framework; and the new political environment in post‐colonial Hong Kong. By challenging the assertion that Hong Kong is returning to the pre‐Patten colonial order under Chinese management, it argues that economic governance in Hong Kong has always been more complex than has been characterized in the literature. A conceptual framework incorporating the dynamic interplay of domestic and international factors is needed to comprehend the changing nature of government‐business relationships in the SAR.     

Farewell to idealism: mapping China's university students of the 1990s

This article portrays China's university students of the 1990s and the differences between these youths and earlier generations. Corresponding to the political apathy and commercial ardor of post‐1989 China, the once appealing political idealism and activism of the 1980s was quickly replaced by a sort of fast‐food consumer culture that dominated Chinese society and campuses in the 1990s. Many students chose to distance themselves from sensitive political issues, though they still followed current affairs closely and held a strong nationalist outlook. They learned how to reconcile with existing social conditions and made their decisions, on career or politics, based on the principle of individual interests. Being compelled to shift their status from the ‘proud children of heaven’ to ordinary members of society, students readily went to great lengths to merge in and be submerged by the secular world.     

我国非政府组织的发展与统一战线工作

随着我国社会主义市场经济的建立,社会的利益结构发生了重大的变化,各社会阶层、社会群体之间的利益矛盾不断涌现和发展,这些矛盾都将在利益上形成相应的意志要求,并谋求相应的表达渠道。非政府组织的发展是与新的经济形式及新的社会阶层的不断壮大紧密结合在一起的。党的各级统战部门要积极引导非政府组织健康发展,拓展统战工作新领域。     

人民政协协商民主的内涵刍议与作用厘定

人民政协是在世界上独一无二的、在历史上亘古未有的政治组织，也是即符合中国国情又独具中国特色，在中国革命、建设和改革中逐步形成和不断发展的政治组织。社会主义协商民主在某种意义上而言，主要指人民政协协商民主。当然，随着中国经济社会发展，人民政协协商民主已经广泛渗透到国家政治社会生活中，而且在不断丰富和发展。可见，人民政协在社会主义协商民主中发挥着重要渠道作用。     

Spectacles of remembrance: nostalgia in contemporary Chinese art

Nostalgia, especially imagined nostalgia, thrives in the art works of the 1990s in China as it helps artists ‘fashion’ a dialogic role between commodity and cultural critique. The art works I have sampled here demonstrate how three artists inventively hitch‐hike commodified settings to engage in transitory yet constructive social commentary on China's headlong plunge into a market‐driven society. All three favor the mode of ‘photographic remembering’ which enables them, not to reject or bypass, but to work in and through consumer culture in order that they can give full play to the more emancipatory and enlightening potentialities implied in their humanistic pursuit.     

Economic Growth and Income Inequality: the modern Taiwan experience

This paper investigates the dispersion of household income in the course of economic development in Taiwan. Statistics show that inequality of income has increased since the early 1980s as the rate of economic growth has declined from 11.6% in 1986 to 4.1% in 2005. The empirical result on the relationship between economic growth and income distribution also fails to support the conventional inverted-U Kuznets curve. Factors leading to change in income disparity may be attributed to variations in family formation, economic structures, and the recent change in political leadership and institutional policy. Among them, increased single-parent families deteriorate overall income share, although growth in the service sector helps to alleviate inequity. The new political governance and policy reform since 2000 are detected to aggravate income inequality.     

中国共产党执政生态系统的变革能力分析

回顾90年余的发展历史，中国共产党之所以能够由弱变强、由小到大．成为领导中国革命、建设和改革开放事业从胜利走向胜利的执政党，究其原因是其善于对自身的执政生态系统进行变革，在与其他党派的竞争中保持了系统性、整体性、严密性和先进性优势，使党的学习能力、创新能力、组织结构、体制机制与党在各个不同时期的目标任务和经济社会发展要求相适应。党执政生态系统的变革不仅有内因、外因的制约，而且政党政治发展的客观规律也是一个重要的因素。     

新社会阶层有序参与民主政治建设的历史经验

新社会阶层有序参与民主政治建设的历史经验表明:必须坚持中国共产党的领导,将加强党的执政能力同扩大党的执政基础有机结合起来;必须坚持以经济建设为中心,将市场经济体制和机制的建设同社会主义基本制度有机结合起来;必须坚持以人为本,将全面落实科学发展观同社会主义和谐社会建设有机结合起来;必须坚持以现有民主政治构架为基础,将新社...     

China and Asian regionalism: Challenge and policy choice

Regionalism has become an interesting phenomenon in Asian international relations. Driven by fast growing trade and investment, Asian countries have developed variegated patterns of economic co‐operation and a complex level of interdependence among themselves. Although the growing Asian regionalism is very much an economics‐driven process, it has profound impacts on regional political organization. This analysis examines Beijing's changing attitudes toward Asian regionalism and its policy choice in the regional economic integration. It is argued that the integration of the Chinese economy into the regional structure is promoted by the government as well as driven by market dynamics. Although Beijing has let the Chinese economy develop into the regional ‘flying geese’ structure, the best policy choice for China, as many Chinese scholars have argued, would be a three‐circle strategy of integrating into the world economy and a strategy of ‘market for technology’ in regional economic co‐operation. This analysis also discusses the regional political obstacles impeding co‐operation across national borders. It is argued that healthy bilateral relations and more political will toward regional multilateralism on political issues would be instrumental for future regional prosperity and stablity in Asia.     

‘Rich brothers’ and ‘poor cousins’: the political economy of post‐reform rural disparity in a Chinese township

Rural reforms have resulted in great uneven development in rural China. The gap between the rich and the poor has been widened due to the diversity in the conditions for production and social life in the countryside. This paper probes into an interesting yet complex question: what causes the great economic divergences among villages that are geographically so close sharing similar physical settings and natural endowment? Answering this question is beyond the scope of a sole economic analysis. Using the case of Dayingjie Township, Yunnan Province, the paper develops an answer based on the political economy approach. It argues that human capital and social networking play important roles in the economic take off of a rich village in the Dayingjie context. As the gap between rich and poor communities widens, localism and weak distribution power at the township level become apparent, indicating a combination of both economic and political dimensions in deepening the gap. Finally, extreme concentration of resources leads to the rise of a group of a new rural elite who holds both political and economic leverage. They influence local politics toward profit hunting in favour of the wealthy clan in a rich village. This further leads to an ever‐widening gap between the rich and poor. The Dayingjie case presents important insights in understanding inter‐village disparity in rural China. Whether this story is generalizable in China is still too early to tell, but, by investigating one particular geographic area, this article attempts to direct attention to the political economy of inter‐village disparity in China and to stimulate more discussion in the future.     

我国中等收入阶层的现状与政策分析

当前我国中等收入阶层存在着许多不尽如人意的地方,实际上正对中国的社会发展和政治稳定形成冲击和挑战.要扩大中等收入阶层规模,提高中等收入阶层的整体素质,形成以中等收入阶层为主体的现代社会结构,必须选择合理的社会政策,如深化经济体制改革、分配制度改革、调整优化产业结构、完善民主机制,同时大力发展教育.     

Xiao‐kang: Deng Xiaoping's socio‐economic development target for China

Ever since xiao‐kang or XK, literally meaning a ‘relatively comfortable life’, was first slated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to be China's main development target, the concept has become a codeword for China's socio‐economic development. It was incorporated in several major Party documents and formally adopted as the key development target by three consecutive Five‐Year Plans. What is the real meaning of XK? This paper analyses China's first XK Index which was published in 1992, based on a cluster of economic and social indicators relating to income, food consumption, housing, and human resource development. It will be seen that XK is actually a normative concept, fuzzy and grossly imprecise, especially when applied to a transitional economy like China. What constitutes XK to Deng may well be perceived differently by the new generation of Chinese. Such is the continuing social challenge of China's economic development.