Re: Greg Chin's diss

[Marc Blecher <Marc.Blecher@oberlin.edu>]

Thanks, Jonathan. Mary Gallagher's forthcoming book argues that foreign
capital was the force that impelled labor "reform" in the state sector too.
That is, foreign firms demanded capitalist labor relations, and when they
got them, state firms said they needed them too to compete with the foreign
firms.
Marc

=========== 




> TITLE     Building 'capitalism with China's characteristics': The political
> economy of model joint ventures in the automotive industry
> AUTHOR     Chin, Gregory Thomas
> DEGREE     PhD
> SCHOOL     YORK UNIVERSITY (CANADA)
> DATE     2003
> PAGES     423
> ADVISER  Frolic, B. Michael
> 
> This thesis examines the nature of China's post-Mao societal transformation.
> The
> central argument is that there has been a significant shift to capitalist
> social
> relations of production in China 'model' joint venture sector. It is further
> suggested that China's foreign-invested sectors more broadly operate according
> to
> the logic of capitalist accumulation. The research for this study focuses on
> two
> key Model joint ventures (JVs) in China's automotive industry: First
> Automotive
> Works-Volkswagen and Beijing Jeep. In the Model JVs, the capitalist
> transformation has involved fundamental structural changes in production and
> accumulation, and in state-firm relations. Changes at both the levels of
> production and the Chinese state have been linked to the transformative
> influence
> of international capital. This capitalist transformation has also involved the
> creation of Model JV-centred production networks which link the Model JVs
> 'downward' to local parts suppliers and ‘outward’ to foreign
> capital.
> The thesis further shows that a hegemonic regime of labour control is integral
> to
> the specific form of China's Model JV capitalism; and that a key stratum of
> Chinese elite managers has emerged in the Model JVs as <italic>the</italic>
> main
> agents of the capitalist transformation. In fostering the Model JVs, the
> Chinese
> (Party-)state at both the central and local levels has enacted important
> policy
> shifts, and has undergone functional changes which preconditioned the
> capitalist
> transformation of these firms.
> 
> 
> 
> 



Professor Marc Blecher
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