The New ‘Comprador Class’: the re-emergence of bureaucratic capitalists in post-Deng China
2013; Routledge; Volume: 22; Issue: 83 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10670564.2013.782128
ISSN1469-9400
Autores Tópico(s)China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
ResumoAbstract The past two decades have witnessed increasing use of the concept of ‘bureaucratic capitalism’ to explain various endemic problems in China, including corruption and social inequalities. Yet, scant attention has been paid to the rise of key bureaucratic capitalists and the state corporations under their control. Neither has there been adequate discussion of the recent form of bureaucratic capitalism in contradistinction to that of the previous forms evolving in the republican and early reform periods. In question therefore is a small circle of bureaucratic bourgeoisie who are children, close relatives or protégés of top political leaders. They have come to control key state-corporation apparatuses, and some of whom possess close ties with the military. In conclusion, the future implications of this emergent form of bureaucratic capitalism on Chinese politics will also be discussed. Notes 1. Michael Johnston and Hao Yufan, ‘China's surge of corruption’, Journal of Democracy 6(4), (1995), pp. 80–94; Guo Dingping, ‘The changing nature of Chinese socialism comparative perspectives’, European Journal of East Asian Studies 8(1), (2009), pp. 1–29, esp. p. 25. 2. In his secret journal published in 2009, former party secretary, Zhao Ziyang, remembered that Deng Xiaoping was strongly against the Western model of the tripartite separation of powers; Deng once said, ‘Let there be not even a trace of tripartite separation of powers’. Bao Pu, Renee Chiang and Adi Ignatius, eds, Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Zhao Ziyang (London, New York, Sydney and Toronto: A CBS Company, 2009), p. 280. 3. Susan L. Shirk, The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China (Berkeley, LA and Oxford: University of California Press, 1993), p. 333. 4. Sun Yan, Corruption and Market in Contemporary China (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2004), p. 16. 5. Paul D. Hutchcroft, Booty Capitalism: The Politics of Banking in the Philippines (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 1998), pp. 20–21. 6. Robert Wade and Gordon White, eds, Developmental State in East Asia (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988); Gordon White, ed., The Chinese State in the Era of Economic Reform: The Road to Crisis (London: Macmillan, 1991). 7. Lin Nan, ‘Local market socialism: local corporatism in action in rural China’, Theory and Society 24(3), (1995), pp. 301–354. 8. Jean C. Oi, ‘Fiscal reform and the economic foundations of local state corporatism in China’, World Politics 45, (1992), pp. 99–126; Jean C. Oi, ‘The role of the local state in China's transitional economy’, China Quarterly 144, (1995), pp. 1132–1149. 9. Lu Xiaobo and Lance Gore, ‘The Communist legacy in post-Mao economic growth’, China Journal 41, (1999), pp. 25–54. 10. Marc Blecher, ‘Developmental state, entrepreneurial state: the political economy of social reform in Xinji Municipality and Guanghan County’, in White, ed., The Chinese State in the Era of Economic Reform; Marc Blecher and Vivenne Shue, Tethered Deer: Government & Economy in a Chinese County (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996). 11. Jane Duckett, The Entrepreneurial State in China: Real Estate and Commerce Departments in the Reform Era in Tianjian (New York: Routledge, 1998). 12. Lu Xiaobo, ‘Booty socialism, bureau-preneurs, and the state in transition: organizational corruption in China’, Comparative Politics 32(3), (2000), pp. 273–292. 13. Lu Xiaobo, ‘Booty socialism, bureau-preneurs, and the state in transition: organizational corruption in China’, Comparative Politics 32(3), (2000), pp. 273–274. See also Ko Kilkon and Zhi Hui, ‘Fiscal decentralization: guilty of aggravating corruption in China?’, Journal of Contemporary China 22(79), (2013), pp. 35–55. 14. David L. Wank, ‘Bureaucratic patronage and private business: changing networks of power in urban China’, in Andrew G. Walder, ed., The Waning of the Communist State (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 153–183; Zhang Jianjun, ‘State power, elite relations, and the politics of privatization in China's rural industry: different approaches in two regions’, Asian Survey 48(2), (2008), pp. 215–238; Pei Sun, Mike Wright, and Kamel Mellahi, ‘Is entrepreneur–politician alliance sustainable during transition? The case of management buyouts in China’, Management and Organization Review 6(1), (2010), pp. 101–121. 15. Bruce J. Dickson, Wealth into Power: The Communist Party's Embrace of China's Private Sector (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 23. 16. Maurice Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978–1994 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996), p. 300. 17. John King Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution: 1800–1985 (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), p. 121. 18. Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era, p. 302. 19. These were the families of the top National Party leaders: Chiang Kaishek, Song Ziwen, Kong Xiangxi and the Chen brothers (Chen Lifu and Chen Guofu). 20. Gong Ting, The Politics of Corruption in Contemporary China (Westport, CO and London: Praeger, 1994), p. 42. 21. Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, p. 264. 22. Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era, p. 319. 23. Wu Jing-lian and Zhao Ren-wei, ‘The dual pricing system in China's industry’, Journal of Comparative Economics 11, (1987), pp. 309–328; Cheng Li, China's Leaders: The New Generation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), p. 137. 24. Anonymous, ‘The “Everbright Organization” and its Chairman Wang Kuang-ying’, Issues & Studies 21(3), (1981), pp. 142–147, esp. p. 142. 25. Rong Yiren was vice-president during 1993–1998. 26. Wang Zhen was vice-president during 1988–1993, virtually the predecessor of Rong Yiren. 27. Eric Hyer, ‘China's arms merchants: profits in command’, The China Quarterly 132, (1992), pp. 1101–1118, esp. p. 1113. 28. ‘Red chip’ corporations refer to business organizations which are controlled, either directly or indirectly, by organizations or enterprises that are owned by the state, provinces or municipalities of China. The word ‘red‘ represents the People's Republic of China and the CCP. 29. Kong Dan had been vice-chairman and president of CITIC since 2000. See also Cheng, China's Leaders. 30. Hyer, ‘China's arms merchants’. 31. Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era, p. 35. 32. Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era, p. 328. 33. Anonymous, ‘The “Everbright Organization” and its Chairman Wang Kuang-ying’, p. 143. 34. Cheng, China's Leaders, p. 136. 35. Cheng, China's Leaders, p. 136. 36. Bruce Gilley, Tiger on the Brink: Jiang Zemin and China's New Elite (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), p. 158. 37. Liu Binyan, Tell the World: What Happened in China and Why, trans. by Henry L. Epstein (New York: Pantheon Books, 1989), pp. 164–165. 38. Liu Binyan, Tell the World: What Happened in China and Why, trans. by Henry L. Epstein (New York: Pantheon Books, 1989), p. 165. 39. Gilley, Tiger on the Brink, p. 158; Matt Forney, ‘Plugged in: Chinese leader's son builds an empire in the phone business’, Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition), (11 January 1999), p. A1; J. Kynge and R. Mcgregor, ‘It is a glorious thing to be allowed to join the party …’, Financial Times, (6 November 2002), p. 21. 40. Gao Mobo, The Battle for China's Past: Mao and the Cultural Revolution (London and Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Press, 2008), p. 183. 41. Bo Zhiyu, China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing (Singapore and Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2007), p. 246. 42. Eric Harwit, ‘Telecommunications and the Internet in Shanghai: political and economic factors shaping the network in a Chinese city’, Urban Studies 42(10), (2005), pp. 1837–1858. 43. Bo, China's Elite Politics, p. 369. 44. ‘An interview with CAS vice-president and Deputy General Commander of China's first manned spaceship project, Jiang Mianheng’, Guangming Daily, (17 October 2003). 45. Bo, China's Elite Politics, p. 247. 46. One month later, on 8 December 2001, an interview of Zhu Lin was published in Legal System News (Fajibao). She declared that she never had an illegal bond, and was never president or general manager of any companies. 47. Shai Oster, ‘Attraction of business is powerful for Ms. Li, China's “princelings”’, Wall Street Journal, (15 May 2006), p. B1. 48. Anonymous, ‘Firm of Hu's son gets scanner pact at China airports’, Wall Street Journal, (13 December 2009), p. B1. 49. John Pomfret, ‘Lines crossed in China’, Washington Post, (17 August 2002), p. A01. 50. Matt Forney, ‘Key Chinese hard-liner loses influence’, Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), (30 August 2000), p. 22. 51. ‘Wang involved in Taiwanese version of Madoff case’, Mingpao, (18 April 2009). 52. Hui Hang, ‘An expose of CCP princeling tycoons’, Open Magazine, (1 June 2010), pp. 22–25. 53. Chen Ling, ‘Playing the market reform card: the changing patterns of political struggle in China's electric power sector’, China Journal 64, (2010), pp. 69–95, esp. p. 88. 54. For example, see ‘Jiang Zemin paves the way for his son to be CCP Central Committee member’, Hong Kong Economic Times, (3 December 1999). 55. Meisner, The Deng Xiaoping Era, p. 321. 56. Dickson, Wealth into Power; Kynge and Mcgregor, ‘It is a glorious thing to be allowed to join the party …’; Emily T. Yeh and Joanna I. Lewis, ‘state power and the logic of reform in china's electricity sector’, Pacific Affairs 77(3), (2004), pp. 437–465, esp. pp. 438–439. 57. Dickson, Wealth into Power, pp. 239–242. 60. C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), p. 346. 58. For example, Sun, Corruption and Market in Contemporary China; Lu, ‘Booty socialism, bureau-preneurs, and the state in transition’; Dickson, Wealth into Power; Gong Ting, The Politics of Corruption in Contemporary China. 59. Lu, ‘Booty socialism, bureau-preneurs, and the state in transition’, p. 275. 61. Erik Eckholm, ‘Chinese power company chief flees the country and scrutiny’, New York Times, (20 October 2002), p. 8. 62. SPC is a holding company which owns most of the infrastructure and all or part of the shares in the subordinate power companies. It plays a key role in planning investment, and in planning power supply and demand. [See Philip Andrews-Speed and Stephen Dow, ‘Reform of China's electric power industry challenges facing the government’, Energy Policy 28, (2000), pp. 335–347, esp. 337.] It controls the grid, as well as about half of China's generating capacity. The other half is shared by a number of IPPs. [See ‘Something rotten in the state of China’, The Economist, (16 February 2002).] 63. It this case, Li Peng was unable to protect Gao Yan from the investigation's probable charges, which focused on his activities while serving as governor of Yunnan several years before (1995–1997). Some called Gao a ‘sacrificial lamb’ as Li Peng's family still maintained their control over the industry after the case. [See Tim Oakes, ‘Building a Southern dynamo: Guizhou and state power’, The China Quarterly 178, (2004), pp. 467–487. 64. If I have to pick one who is likely to have a promising political career, I would pick Li Xiaopeng. As deputy governor of Shanxi, he is now gaining experience in local governance. He is already an alternate member of the CCP Central Committee. All these criteria are almost prerequisites for one to ascend to the top of the Chinese political system. Furthermore, his public image is better than Jiang Mianheng. Moreover, by 2022, when Xi Jinping finishes his second term of office, Li will be 63-years-old which is, in Chinese politics, the ‘prime’ age to take up supreme leadership posts. Jiang Mianheng will then be too old and Hu Haifeng maybe a bit too young. Additional informationNotes on contributorsWing-Chung Ho *Wing-Chung Ho is an associate professor of sociology at City University of Hong Kong and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from SOAS, University of London. He has published broadly on community studies and social problems in relation to subordinate people in Hong Kong and Chinese societies. His academic articles appear in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, The Canadian Review of Sociology, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Modern Asian Studies, Journal of Social History, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology and Human Studies. He teaches mainly on social research issues and methods. The author can be reached by email at wingcho@cityu.edu.hk
Referência(s)