Summary

In the past fifty years, the experience of the Chinese economy has continually challenged the assumptions of laissez-faire economics. It has sustained a strong growth rate, changed the structure of international economic relationships and has become critical to many multinational corporations. Now, it appears to be on the verge of becoming a new economic superpower.

Addressing the structure and dynamics of the Chinese economy, Satyananda J. Gabriel examines in-depth the connection between growth and the particular version of Marxism that has been adopted by the Communist Party of China. One of the most comprehensive analyses of the contemporary Chinese economy, this book covers industry and agriculture, rural and urban enterprises, labour power and financial markets, and the process of integrating the Chinese domestic economy into global capitalism. Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision identifies the current transition in China as a historic passage from state feudalism to state capitalism that will significantly alter both the internal political and economic dynamics of China and the global political economy.

Choice Review

How seriously will discerning readers take a volume that purports to analyze and critique the complexities of the political economy of contemporary China using au courant Marxist theory but virtually no Chinese-language sources? How seriously can they regard an economic analysis that betrays such a highly selective knowledge of modern Chinese economic history both pre- and post-1949? Gabriel (Mount Holyoke College) seems inured to the clumsiness of using neo-Marxist labels such as "ancient class process" to capture his pre-1949 analytical baseline--the sophisticated economic institutions and processes (contracts, networks, business partnerships, informal credit, and financial arrangements) discerned over the past few decades by numerous Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars. While adroitly dissecting the momentous shift from the rigid egalitarian encumbrances of Maoist "state feudalism" to the opportunistic, globalistic exploitation of post-Mao private capitalism, Gabriel omits Barry Naughton's stunning verdict that Mao's perverse vision of socialism embodied the waste of no less than 18 percent of China's GNP between 1953 and 1978. Though it may succeed as a polemical tract questioning the socialist tenets of current PRC economic policies, this book ideologically sidesteps a most convincing and more balanced analysis of China's economic development before and apres Mao. ^BSumming Up: Optional. Comprehensive academic and research collections only. R. P. Gardella United States Merchant Marine Academy