China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture Review

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China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture ReviewThe ethnographies in "China Urban" are a good way to learn about the Post-Mao reforms that took place in 1979, and how it affected everyday life of chinese population. Most of all, it helps to understand the chinese diaspora today.China Urban: Ethnographies of Contemporary Culture Overview

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China's New Role In Africa Review

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China's New Role In Africa ReviewChina has become an economic trading powerhouse, and its trading partners include many nations on the continent of Africa. "China's New Role in Africa" is a scholarly examination of the relationship of China and its African trading partners. Discussing in depth China's foreign relations when it comes to the continent, the importance of oil, what Africa gets in return, human rights concerns, arms trading, and what it all means for world peace, Taylor gives readers much to think about. "China's New Role in Africa" is a grand pick for those who ponder the world's foreign relations when America isn't directly involved.
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How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders Review

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How China's Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China's Past, Current and Future Leaders ReviewThis book is a product of a true China hand, someone who has been dealing with China since 1967. The book is full of insights and historical events. An outstanding book!

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Capitalism Without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China Review

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Capitalism Without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China ReviewThe book refutes the prevailing modernization theory that capitalism can lead to democracy. Findings from the study of private entrepreneurs in different regions in China supports Professor Tsai's proposition that the relationship between economic liberalism and political freedom is not definitely correlated.
Putting it in a nutshell, this book has contributed to three major findings in the study of political economy in China. First, economic liberalization in China since 1976 has not resulted in the emergence of democratic regime or the decline of the authoritarian state. According to Professor Tsai, private entrepreneurs in China are not nuts about democracy and researchers cannot view private entrepreneurs as a homogeneous class because of their diverse identities, interests, and values in politics. Second, widespread apathy amongst private entrepreneurs in China towards democracy does not mean that they have an acquiescent nature. They tend to adopt different coping strategies rather than instigate virulent opposition against the regime or demand regime transition when various formal institutions constrain their business activities. The so-called "coping strategies" result in a variety of "adaptive informal institutions" being established in different economic regions in China. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews and nationwide survey of private entrepreneurs, Professor Tsai divides them into five key types; namely Wenzhou model, Sunan model, Zhujiang model, state-dominated model, and Limited development model. For instance, private entrepreneurs in Wenzhou engaged in a variety of innovative financing practices to set up and expand their businesses which were outside of the state banking system. Private entrepreneurs in Guangdong province sought to establish fake foreign enterprises in order to enjoy policy advantages including tax breaks and preferential access to land. Third, the near ubiquity of adaptive informal institutions becomes an endogenous force that has prompted the government to generate institutional change without regime change. However, such institutional change to react to the existence of adaptive informal institutions cannot be likely to become sources of democratization. Professor Tsai maintains that private entrepreneurs in China show no intention of agitating for democracy but capitalism can exist without democracy, provided that the Chinese government can attend to adaptive informal institutions that complement endogenous institutional change.
This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in political economy and the development of private enterprises in China.
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The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy Review

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The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy ReviewI had hoped this would be a hopeful book somehow laying out a convincing argument that China's rise will eclipse the disintegrating international capitalist economy and usher in a new world order focused on meeting human needs in an environmentally sustainable manner. Sadly, that is not this book's argument.
"Chinese socialism was the historical product of a great revolution, which was based on the broad mobilization and support of the workers and peasants comprising the great majority of the population. As a result, it would necessarily reflect the interests and aspirations of ordinary working people. On the other hand, China remained a part of the capitalist world-economy, and was under constant and instance pressure of military and economic competition against other big powers. To mobilize resources for capital accumulation, surplus product had to be extracted from the workers and peasants and concentrated in the hands of the state. This in turn created opportunities for the bureaucratic and technocratic elites to make use of their control over the surplus product to advance their individual power and interests rather than the collective interest of the working people. This was the basic historical contradiction that confronted Chinese socialism as well as other socialist states in the twentieth century."
The author, Minqi Li, was a member of the student dissident movement of the 80s in China. He describes the milieu during which he studied neoclassical economics at Beijing University: "The 1980s was a decade of political and intellectual excitement in China. Despite some half-hearted official restrictions, large sections of the Chinese intelligentsia were politically active and were able to push for successive waves of the so-called 'emancipation of ideas' (jiefang sixiang). The intellectual critique of the already existing Chinese socialism at first took place largely within a Marxist discourse. Dissident intellectuals called for more democracy without questioning the legitimacy of the Chinese Revolution or the economic institutions of socialism.
After 1985, however, economic reform moved increasingly in the direction of the free market. Corruption increased and many among the bureaucratic elites became the earliest big capitalists. Meanwhile, among the intellectuals, there was a sharp turn to the right... The politically active intellectuals no longer borrowed discourse from Marxism. Instead, western classical liberalism and neoliberal economics, as represented by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, had become the new, fashionable ideology."
A turn towards neoliberalism had, by the 1980s, been made possible by decades of Maoist development policy, which had developed "the necessary industrial and technological infrastructure [allowing China to] become a major player in the global capitalist economy." Li does a good job explaining the capitalist world-system, according to Immanuel Wallerstein's formulation, with its separation into core, semi-peripheral and peripheral states. The international division of labor has core states, like the U.S. and Japan, performing cutting-edge production requiring massive investment and organization, and which offer the greatest profit margins; the semi-peripheral states, like South Korea and most recently China, performing second-generation production that was cutting edge decades ago but which still offer substantial profits; and the peripheral states, like Angola and Bangladesh, which perform low value-added production like raw material exports and low-tech manufacturing.
Li argues that China's move from peripheral to semi-peripheral status (as China now produces all sorts of high- and low-tech products for the core states) signals trouble for the capitalist world-system: "the current 'rise of China' as well as the 'rise of India,' could be the signal that the capitalist world-economy is calling upon its last strategic reserves (such as China, India, the remaining resources, and the remaining space for pollution) to make one more attempt to jump-start global accumulation... The current global development is likely to suggest that several secular trends, which result from the inherent laws of motion of the existing world-system, are now reaching their historical limits."
Why? Because the capitalist world-system relies on strategic reserves of labor that can be called upon when existing labor forces begin to successfully fight for higher wages. Since the system needs high profit margins to reproduce itself via investment, and since high wages put pressure on profit margins, the capitalist world-system needs countries like China and India to turn to for their cheap labor forces once wage costs, or lack of effective demand (in other words, low wages that reduce a market's buying power) begin to threaten profitability. But the very process of exploiting labor in China - building factories and creating an urban working class, moving China from peripheral to semi-peripheral status - threatens to undermine the ability to exploit such labor in the future. Li explains: "To the extent that the non-core states have lower levels of proletarianization, workers tend to be less educated, less effectively organized, and under constant pressure to compete against a large rural reserve army [of laborers]. The workers in these states, therefore, tend to have much lower bargaining power and receive significantly lower real wages. *The low real wages in the periphery and semi-periphery make it possible for the world surplus value to be concentrated in the core and help to keep down system-wide wage costs*. However, in the long run, the development of the capitalist world-economy has been associated with the progressive urbanization of the labor force. After some initial disorientation, urbanized workers have invariably struggled for higher degrees of organization and extension of their economic, social and political rights. Their struggles have led to growing degrees of proletarianization within the capitalist world economy." (emphasis added)
This spells trouble for the world-system, since as production costs increase in China as workers successfully fight for higher wages, there will be few alternative states for producers to turn to for cheap, educated labor and efficient infrastructure. Also, China's ever-increasing contribution to environmental degradation threatens to undermine the world economy through destruction of the natural environment of which it is a part.
Li's analysis of economic - and, more depressingly, ecological trends - leads to the following conclusion: "With the decline of the US hegemony (reflected by its ever-declining ability and willingness to pursue the system's long-term, common interest), no other state is in a position to replace the US and provide effective leadership for the system. China and every other potential hegemonic candidate all suffer from insurmountable contradictions and weaknesses. None has the ability to offer 'system-level solutions' to 'system-level problems.' Either the existing world-system has exhausted its historical space for potential new leadership and therefore is doomed to systemic disintegration, or the new leadership will have to assume the form of an alliance of multiple continent-sized states, which will then become a world-government and therefore bring the existing world-system to an end.
The capitalist world-economy rests upon the ceaseless expansion of material production and consumption, which is fundamentally incompatible with the requirements of ecological sustainability. Depletion of material resources and pollution of the earth's ecological system have now risen to the point that the ecological system is on the verge of collapse and the future survival of humanity and human civilization is at stake.
To summarize, multiple economic, social, geopolitical, and ecological forces are now converging towards the final demise of the existing world-system, that is, the capitalist world economy."
What comes next could be a rational world-system of production geared towards first fulfilling human needs, then wants, in an ecologically-sustainable manner. But while the current system's demise is assured, there is no guarantee of the character of its replacement, and, at this point, very little likelihood it will resemble the description above.The Rise of China and the Demise of the Capitalist World Economy Overview

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Popular Protest in China (Harvard Contemporary China) Review

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Popular Protest in China (Harvard Contemporary China) ReviewI'm not one for writing long reviews, so I'll keep this simple. This a fantastic overview of the types of popular protest in China. It's a great place to start for a student interested in Chinese contention starting in the reform era, even for those like me who honestly don't know much about China and its history at all (I'm more of a Japan specialist, but I had to take a Chinese Politics course as part of my graduate studies).
Keep in mind that these are all very short essays on different topics related to protest so this is not the book to go to for someone looking to research any topic in depth. But when I had to write a literature review on the role of the Internet in Chinese contention, I was able to use Patricia Thornton's and Guobin Yang's articles as an introduction and look through their endnotes to find out where to learn more.
If you don't read anything else, you must at least read Elizabeth Perry's conclusion where she ties the popular protest described in the book to the protests that occurred in China's past.
All in all, a great read for anyone with an active interest in contemporary China!Popular Protest in China (Harvard Contemporary China) Overview

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The Dragon in the Room: China and the Future of Latin American Industrialization Review

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The Dragon in the Room: China and the Future of Latin American Industrialization ReviewKevin Gallagher and Roberto Porzecanski reveal to their audience that there exists much discomfort about the overdependence of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) on the exports of primary commodities to China (p. 14). Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, and Peru exported together ten different commodities that represented almost 75% of total LAC exports to China in 2006 (pp. 17-24). China is not importing many manufactured goods, especially from LAC (p. 140). This uneasiness about the nature of LAC trade with China is nothing new. LAC was overreliant on primary-commodities exports in much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (pp. 139; 147).
Concern with this economic evolution in LAC is well-founded. Economies that are overdependent on the export of primary commodities suffer from what is alternatively called "Dutch disease," "resource curse." These economies tend to deindustrialize for the following reasons:
* Discoveries of these primary commodities and their subsequent export raise the value of a country's currency;
* Currency appreciation leads to a loss of competitiveness for domestic manufactured goods and services;
* This deteriorating competitiveness negatively impacts a country's balance-of-payment and results into poor economic performance (pp. 14; 24; 29-30; 35; 137).
The symptoms of this "disease" go hand in hand with environmental degradation and a decline in prices and demand for primary commodities in the long-run (pp. 29-32; 137; 140). This bleak panorama does not even account for the volatility of primary commodity trading as the current worldwide economic crisis clearly demonstrates (p. 13).
Interestingly, Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski note that the stabilization funds that Chile and a few other countries created as a sound macroeconomic management tool have not played a significant role in boosting economic diversification (pp. 13; 32-37).
In contrast, countries with a more diversified economy grow faster and are more stable (p. 147). This economic diversification away from an economy based on primary commodities towards a knowledge-based economy goes on until per capita gross domestic product exceeds $15,000 (p. 3).
Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski demonstrate with much evidence that China has increasingly outcompeted LAC manufacturing exporters both within and outside LAC. This development has been very pronounced since 2000 (pp. 81; 137). Both authors calculate that 94% of all LAC manufacturing exports are under some type of threat from China. These 94% manufacturing exports that are under threat represented 40% of all LAC exports in 2006 and added up to over $260 billion (pp. 39; 46-51; 54; 137). More worryingly, this declining competitiveness also has on impact on LAC's high-technology (HT) exports. China threatened over 95% of all LAC HT exports in 2006 (pp. 62-69; 138). Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski also show that LAC remains an insignificant player in the services export sector. OECD countries still dominate services exports (pp. 76-81).
Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski convincingly explain to their readers that this threat is especially grave for Mexico, despite its close proximity to the U.S. and favorable tariff access through NAFTA (pp. 51; 92-97; 111; 138). Both authors attribute this negative evolution to the following factors:
* Overreliance on the "Washington Consensus;"
* Lack of linkages between foreign firms and the domestic economy;
* Painfully low levels of technological capacity building;
* Low value added in exports of the maquiladora sector;
* Overdependence on the U.S. as a chief export market. 85% of Mexican exports are destined for the U.S.;
* Lack of competitiveness vis-à-vis China. 80% of Mexico's exports are under threat in the U.S. market (pp. 103; 115-116; 138).
In contrast, China has pursued a more gradual and experimental approach to integration, upgrading, and industrial development by adhering to the following policies:
* Government support;
* Indigenous R&D and innovation investment within individual firms;
* Creation of R&D institutions;
* Alliance among firms in an industry and their cooperation with research institutes, universities, and foreign firms;
* High level of support for tertiary education and training;
* Undervalued exchange rate and "forced technology transfers" that OECD governments and others rightly denounce (pp. 116; 118; 120; 124-126; 131-132).
Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski invite LAC decision-makers not to fall prey to China-bashing. Instead, both authors note that Brazil and Mexico have much to learn from China about how to further industrialize because of the size of their respective domestic market. The other LAC countries will get the most benefit from emulating other East Asian economies such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan. China and other East Asian countries have been the most successful industrializers and globalizers in the world economy (pp. 142-148).
In summary, Messrs. Gallagher and Porzecanski break new ground in exploring the future of LAC industrialization. The takeaways of this book are relevant to decision-makers not only in Latin America, but also elsewhere in the world. As a side note, either History or National Geographic could produce a DVD set on industrialization through the ages. To their credit, both organizations play a key role in making complex subjects accessible to a wide audience.
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To change China;: Western advisers in China, 1620-1960, Review

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To change China;: Western advisers in China, 1620-1960, ReviewIn spite of this book's promotional description, not all "advisers to China" failed to make a difference nor were they discarded after their usefulness to the Emperor or other agency was exhausted. This is an armchair slice of China history seen from the perspective of selected Westerners who became sometimes enchanted or fascinated with China---most who brought pre-judgement in what they could accomplish. There is no innate cultural malice in their treatment by the Chinese. They all display extraordinary perseverance. What is missed by other reviewers is that, with a few exceptions, these Westerners adapted linguistically--their success was dependent on their speaking the languages. And at these times, there were many wide-ranging dialects.
This book is acceptable if this is to be your only view of a few early Westerners in Chinese history. The profiles, while simplified because of the brevity of treatment allowed, align fairly closely with the more recent detailed biographies of many of these strong personalities. However, if you want to see the fuller picture, then Tung-Tsu Ch'u's "Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing" provides an understanding of the perspective of the government officials and their duties which justifies their response to Westerners.
This is not a treatise on Chinese science, but Chinese relationships with science are far better explained by the great China scholar Derk Bodde in "Chinese Thought, Society, and Science."
The letters of Robert Hart over his long 1868-1907 tour are found in "The I.G. in Peking" edited by Fairbank, Brunner and Matheson, giving a far more detailed understanding of this highly able and well-traveled workaholic.
Even those only seeking a good read can benefit from seeing the revolutionary era through the American journalists who reported from China, well-detailed by Peter Rand in "China Hands." This will also fill in a better understanding of Chiang Kai-Shek who is mainly portrayed as inept here.
Deeper perspective into missionary zeal is available via many books on the China Inland Mission. "To Change China" does not really provide enough background on the late Ching, the Tsungli Yamen, and the Boxer Rebellion. The extent the Western nations exacted foreign concessions and mis-treated Chinese is not the theme of this book, but could have provided a balancing background to the assumption that Westerner's motives were merely missionary or entrepreneurial. If a reader wishes to feel the atmosphere, then the classic movie "Sand Pebbles" is not inaccurate, although fictional.
The use of older Wade-Giles is wholly appropriate for this time, since it is in that Romanization that these Westerners worked, that maps of the time were printed, etc.
The chapter on the Russian Borodin hopefully will leave the reader wanting to know more about an envoy who was left to manage impossible situations with little reliable direction.
The Westerner who did not fail and who left a lasting legacy was Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who died in the service of the People's Army. His efforts, essentially what we would today call a mobile army surgical hospital (popularized in M*A*S*H) were not thrown away, but lived on in the development of China's PLA Medical Corps. Even though they have stopped requiring the study of Maoist thought in Shanghai and Beijing universities, every Chinese student today knows the name he was given in Chinese. Like missionaries, he was driven and he poured his soul into his work in Canada and the Spanish Civil War, but it was in China that he succeeded, was accepted, and his work lasted. Ask the next Chinese foreign student you meet: "Who was Norman Bethune?" He or she will reply: "You mean Baichuan!" Yes, Bethune was a Westerner and he DID change the part of China that was his mission. And Spence never says otherwise.To change China;: Western advisers in China, 1620-1960, Overview

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When China Rules the World : The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order Review

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When China Rules the World : The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order ReviewMartin Jacques' "When China Rules The World" carries a provocative title, but it should not be a surprise. Anyone can see this outcome coming by simply projecting economic growth in the U.S. and China at roughly their current rates; Goldman Sachs gave such conclusions credibility in 2007 when it concluded that China would surpass U.S. GDP in 2027, and double it by 2050. Jacques' book suffers not from an overly wild imagination, but from taking entirely too long to get this already obvious conclusion, and then not exploring enough about what that means for either Britain (his nation) or the U.S.A.
Far too much of "When China Rules The World" is taken up by a detailed historical summary and analysis of China's 5,000-some year history - to establish that it is not prone to colonizing other parts of the world, values unity among its people, and that its predominantly Han 'nationality' of people are becoming increasingly smug (racist?) as China's economic power grows. Jacques could have shortened this material enormously by simply pointing out that the key to China's recent growth has been the pragmatic orientation of its leaders. Obviously, economic growth has been their #1 objective since Mao's death, and public announcements communicated that the military would have to take a back seat. The late Premier Deng Xiaoping demonstrated this pragmatic focus when - despite being Mao's #2 and having been purged twice for not being a strong-enough Communist, he turned the nation's direction around after Mao's death. At the time, Deng explained his lack of commitment to ideology or history as follows: "I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice." This was interpreted to mean that being productive in life is more important than whether one follows a communist or capitalist ideology.
Regardless, even if Chinese history was the clear determinant of its direction, the topic is so immense and complex I doubt anyone but a Chinese scholar would have the resources or credibility to synthesize the thousands of years involved. That rules Jacques out. However, Jacques' material on today's China is much more useful.
Many China naysayers contend it cannot continue with anything near its recent growth rates because rising demand for labor will end the supply of its low-cost labor. Jacques, however, points out that China needs to create 8 million new jobs/year for its expanding urban population, plus another 15 million for new rural migrants coming to the cities. By 2020 it is estimated that there will be 553 million non-agricultural workers in China - 100 million more than in all the developed world. Another estimate is that 20 years from now China will still have 20% of its population looking for non-agricultural work - in other words, China has a relatively limitless supply of cheap labor.
How will China continue to rapidly grow its economy? First, by increasing its internal consumption, and secondly by moving up the value chain. Manufacturing comprises only about 15% of the cost of getting a product to market. China's leaders aim to increase China's proportion of the whole by raising R&D from $25 billion in 2004 to $45 billion in 2010 and $113 billion in 2020. China is also intensifying efforts to persuade overseas Chinese to return (eg. one-third of Silicon Valley's professional and technical staff are Chinese), and to raise the status and enrollment of its best universities. China has also been very successful in leveraging access to intellectual knowledge in exchange for granting foreign firms access to its markets. Then there's also its reputation for intellectual piracy. Jacques envisions strong Chinese total-product competition in aircraft manufacture, electric automobiles, communications, computers, and solar panels. Given their growing number of engineering graduates and American research labs located in China, I suspect they will also be strong contenders in household goods, biomedical products, wind turbine production - probably about any area they decide to move into, given their strong cost advantages.
Another reason some doubt China's continued success is that it isn't bringing democracy to the masses. Jacques, however, contends that very few countries have combined democracy (as now envisioned) with the process of economic take-off. (The U.S., for example, was late to grant voting to women and minorities.) Jacques also contends that developing countries are especially likely to value a government's ability to deliver economic growth, maintain ethnic harmony, limit corruption, and sustain order and stability as equal, if not greater values to democracy. Regardless, "When When China Rules The World" also presents data showing that most Chinese believe the political climate has improved since 1989 (Tienanmen Square), and 72% of its population are satisfied with the condition of the country vs. only 39% in the U.S. (As for the widely reported large number of civil disturbances within China reported each year, Jacques contends most have nothing to do with the central government - eg. local land issues.)
Bottom line - like it or not, China will become the major global power by 2050 - assuming continued rapid economic growth, and Jacques doesn't think that is going to stop. What does this mean? Jacques says Chinese companies will be the biggest in the world, as will its stock exchanges and banks. Macao will take Las Vegas' place as gambling capital of the world. The dollar will continue its decline and American military bases overseas will become increasingly difficult to finance. China's new aircraft carriers, stealth submarines, etc. will take over the Pacific near China, and its anti-ship missiles render the U.S. Navy obsolete. Taiwan will return to China's jurisdiction.
My projections for the U.S. are a return to protectionism and/or continued decline in our standard of living. Off-shoring will expand to include higher-level jobs such as engineering design, R&D, branding, corporate ownership, and even some marketing. Absent gaining control of our trade and government deficits, the U.S. risks substantial inflation. Government spending will have to drastically reduced at all levels, especially existing outlays for health care, education, and defense.
The "good news" is that there is already compelling evidence of U.S. overspending in all three areas. U.S. health care and education expenditures as a percentage of GDP are both about 2X and more those of other major developed nations, while U.S. defense expenditures (6-7% of GDP) equal those of the rest of the world combined (more if Homeland Security is added in). U.S. outcomes in these areas, however, are middling at best. Thus, about 15.5% of GDP could be eliminated from government and private expenditures for these three areas - about $2.2 trillion/year. In addition, Social Security benefits will have to be cut, the maximum level of taxable earnings eliminated, or both.
Jacques makes a very good point when he says that globalization was largely developed and instigated by Western nations, especially the U.S.; the benefits, however, have largely accrued to East Asia and China, and the drawbacks to the U.S. Combined with increased private and public efforts to outsource service jobs to India, and more jobs lost to technology, its going to be a very rough next few decades in the U.S.A. Americans need to be much more careful about what they wish for!When China Rules the World : The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order Overview

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One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Wall Street Journal Book) Review

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One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Wall Street Journal Book) ReviewI loved this book, by far the best book I've ever read about doing business in China, where I lived for 12 years. The writing is clear. The story-telling is superb. But most of all, the broad perspective and specific analysis of how things work in China combine to deliver a compelling guide for anyone who wants to better understand that mysterious country. It is deeply revealing about Chinese culture, pointedly instructive about why China is such a hard place to do business and ultimately satisfying with its description of success stories.
McGregor came up with a structure that works well. Each chapter tells the story of a particular corner of China business, with a context that is drawn with a journalist's economy and insight, and then a conclusion about what it means. The first one, about Morgan Stanley's efforts to create the first Western-Chinese investment bank, is simply masterful: An engrossing tale, with fascinating characters and a sequence of events that tells a lot about how surprising, frustrating and exciting it can be to work in China. McGregor is remarkably clear-eyed about China, quite admiring and then equally candid about its shortcomings. You trust him as a narrator, because he is evidently in command of his material, but also because he has an incisive eye for human behavior, cultural misconceptions and dumb luck. It makes the whole book very readable and quite enjoyable.
In contrast to many other books that portray China as a machine, or a cold monolithic state, 'One Billion Customers' is deeply perceptive about China's true strengths and glaring weaknesses. The author's personal background comes through clearly: as a journalist, and then as a businessman, he has learned a tremendous amount about how things work in China, and lucky for us, he has the writing ability to communicate it with us. Highly recommended.One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Wall Street Journal Book) Overview

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Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform Review

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Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform ReviewThis is an excellent book if someone is looking for an introduction to chinese politics, history and its political economy. It is comprehensive and easy to grasp, and one of the few books of its kind that I actually found difficult to put down. It is not, however, the best book to look to for an in-depth discussion of specific topics. You should look elsewhere - you could start with Lieberthal's bibliography - if your intrests lie within a narrow subject.Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform Overview

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globalization: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your job Review

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globalization: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your job ReviewThis book provides a thought-provoking summary and analysis of the economics of globalization. It is a quick read and the authors don't intend to provide substantial depth, but it is refreshing as one of the few texts willing to argue that globalization is not only not new, but not worth all the angst it has generated.
The authors' thesis: much of the fear associated with globalization is misplaced, because there is much more local control over economic success than either pro or anti-globalizers are willing to acknowledge. Or as they title one of their chapters: "Countries Control Their Fates." They support this thesis with an analysis of the factors they believe underlie the economic success of China, India and other successful developing countries. They emphasize sustained increases in productivity growth brought about by continuous improvement in efficiency--akin to what the Japanese term kaizen (though they don't call it that). They reject the projections by economist Alan Blinder and others that offshoring may threaten tens of millions of US jobs.
Subsequent chapters analyze trends in employment, wages, and a theory of the firm that concludes that local dominance, supported by a keen knowledge of local consumers and markets, is the way to profit. They correctly note that business formulas often do not translate from one culture to another (remember WalMart's failures abroad) and that an irony of globalization is that markets generally become even more competitive as they become global, reducing profits to firms stuck in commodity businesses. Their analysis of employment data are compelling.
The most valuable chapter in the text is Chapter 6, which analyzes the challenges that befall the country that happens to issue the global reserve currency, now the US dollar. This is the best short explanation anywhere of the process by which this country initially benefits but is likely to eventually face the challenge of chronic current account deficits. Their suggested solution is worth considering.
I'm glad I read the book, but it is minimally successful at dispelling anxiety about the rise of China as a manufacturing power. Their explanation of the country's success is too simplistic, and will do nothing to dissuade anti-globalizers who believe-with justification-that low wages, lack of regulation, cheap capital and poor working conditions fueled the country's boom years, enticing manufacturers away from high wage countries in the process. (See Huang's Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics for a provocative analysis of China's economic transformation). But their arguments that competition in services is less likely than Blinder and others believe are more persuasive.
And a major omission of the text is its failure to even mention energy. Sustained increases in the price of oil eventually will blunt trade in goods.
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China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa Review

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China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa ReviewOf the modest number of books focused on China in Africa, this is one of the two best, and both are unique--if you buy only one, at least read my summary of the other, China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence Whereas this book is direct journalism with wonderful color photos and direct ground-truth stories, China Into Africa is a best in class collection of academic essays.
Sixteen full pages of color photos in the middle of the book were unexpected and a complete delight.
On balance between the two books, this one taught me more and provided insights I could not get elsewhere to include the clear understanding, documented across multiple encounters by the authors, that the Chinese consider any Chinese business area or housing area of, by, and for their Chinese workers, to be sovereign territory of China immune to indigenous inspection or intervention.
Highpoints for me:
+ Africa is undergoing a huge transformation, and in combination, the infusion of Chinese infrastructure with the discovery of new energy fields and the growing need of all for what Africa has, is creating a perfect environment for a wealth explosion, and the US is missing it.
+ US has given up in Africa, in large part because the US Government other than the military does not have the resources, the human capital, the area knowledge, or the innate interest to actually do something strategic. The Chinese, in contrast, are unifying and pacifying Africa with infrastructure and commerce, while gaining direct access to natural resources that they can take possession of at half the market value by controlling the supply chain and no doubt lying about how much they are extracting.
+ Chinese presence in Africa is vertically and horizontally integrated, to include relatively thorough exploitation of what I have named the eight tribes of intelligence (academic, citizen-civil sector, commercial, government, law enforcement, media, military, and non-governmental), the Chinese appear to be way ahead of the US and all others in the Information Operations (IO) domain.
+ The Chinese are introducing simple robust technologies that work and that can be understood by indigenous workers accustomed to 1950's and 1960's technologies. Chinese machines that do equivalent work to Western machines are four times cheaper
+ China handles indigenous requests for Chinese visas strategically--they quickly recognize the local movers and shakers and give them red carpet treatment, unlike Europeans and US where the consular office has no clue and treats everybody badly
+ Chinese study every Minister they need, then assign a Ministerial-level contact from China to visit, cultivate, and then keep in touch--this is so far ahead of the US light-weight approach it makes me want to cry
Some of my flyleaf notes:
+ 900 Chinese companies active across Africa
+ 750,000 Chinese immigrants in South Africa ALONE
+ Cameroon is processing 700,000 visa requests in its Beijing Embassy
+ 300 million Chinese emigrants to Africa is a stated long-term goal
+ Core Chinese approach is a win-win package deal that trades infrastructure and unconditional loans for resource futures--they are approaching each nation strategically and far superior to US and European incoherence. West focuses on humanitarian and other broad issues, Chinese focus on business and longer term win
+ Chinese are beating the West on price and performance every time, to the point that Western firms are starting to bid Chinese subcontractors.
+ Africa and Chinese appear to share a view of democracy as being where everyone decides and no one works
+ Chinese get more out of everything, to include penny pinching, working all facilities and machines 24/7 with shifts, and completely avoiding "distractions" of local engagement outside of business to business dealings
+ NGOs are viewed by the Chinese in Africa as Western tools seeking to harass and set back the Chinese
+ Chinese laborers can earn five times in Africa what they can in China--$500 a month versus $100 a month
+ China is consuming 32% of the world's rice, 47% of the world's cement, 33% of the world's cigarettes, and 10% of the world's lumber but growing rapidly
+ 91,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2007
+ Chinese goods in Africa sell for one quarter to one fifth what the African's own products sell for
+ China close to #1 in small arms sales in Africa
+ China using private security firms, up to 5,000 individuals (probably Chinese) guarding one pipeline
+ Chinese farmers in Sudan growing vegetables for sale to the large Chinese population there, making ten times what they could at home
+ Darfur is the size of France, oil there, China poised to own Sudan, which is growing 9-13% a year
+ Ethiopia has China's biggest Embassy after India
+ Washington's China watchers fall into two camps according to the authors, the Panda Huggers and the Dragon Slayers. It is clear to me as a reader and intelligence professional that neither group has a strategic analytic model or any sense of what US should be doing and why, in Africa
+ Land mines and minefields do not slow down Chinese work. They use bulldozers to set off the mines, if a worker dies their family gets a $44,000 windfall and everyone is happy
+ Chinese created economic zones in Africa that appear to be phantom zones and a tax avoidance scheme, but Africa does not have a regional means of studying and then challenging Chinese moves of this sort
+ In Zambia Chinese treat local workers the way Israelis treat the Palestinians
+ The major regional downside is Chinese deforestation and over-fishing. Bribery appears to negate whatever NGO and national constraints may be in place.
The major downside of China in Africa that came up over and over was the total shut out of local workers who gain no employment, no training, no future.
I found this book fascinating, and give it five stars for the hard work of doing ground truth face to face across multiple continents, and the photos, and the deeper personal insights than provided by the academic work. My notes do not do this book justice, if I had to recommend only one of the two, this would be the one.
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Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours Review

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Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours ReviewThis is a curious book, not really about entrepreneurship but rather about a broad range of cultural, social, historical and economic subjects involving and contrasting China and India, from 1.5 billion village dwellers to urbanites in Beijing and Mumbai. Tarun Khanna's text is part travelogue, part reflection, part history and part speculation about the future. Anyone who has read to any depth about China and India will not find all that much that is surprising here. However, getAbstract recommends this book with enthusiasm because of its nearly unique richness of anecdotes, variety of perspectives, color and range.Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures--and Yours Overview

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About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton Review

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About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton ReviewI spend a large percentage of my time reading about and studying China, but I rarely find a book that captivates me like this one did. James Mann is very knowledgeable and insightful about U.S. - China relations. Since he used information newly available (at the time of the book's publication, in 1998) under the Freedom of Information act, his detailed research goes well beyond what you will find in the news and most books.
The best part about this book, however, is simply how well written it is. It is completely scholarly, yet it reads like a story. It's rare that I say this about a nonfiction book, but I couldn't put "About Face" down.About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton Overview

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Television in Post-Reform China: Serial Dramas, Confucian Leadership and the Global Television Market (Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia) Review

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Television in Post-Reform China: Serial Dramas, Confucian Leadership and the Global Television Market (Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia) ReviewA compact volume with a big idea, this book is a forceful evocation of what Stanley Rosen, in his Forward, calls the "negotiation" between State and Society in contemporary China. "After thirty years of reform," Rosen says, "state-society relations are no longer a one-way street." Zhu argues that the advance of commercial popular culture plays a leading role in this new dynamic. Here the focus is on television, as Zhu reveals how public/popular discourse is channeled through the narrative and formal content of China's most popular television programming -- serial dramas in primetime - and parallels this with the leading intellectual debates and movements of the post-reform era, and with the rhetoric and policies of the state. What Zhu finds, among other things, is that at least for now public opinion, the leading intellectual factions and the state are all more or less in line with the Hu Jintao administration's broad goals and strategies in the service of producing a "Harmonious Society."
Zhu also raises good questions about Hollywood's future role in the transnational Chinese audio-visual market; about the state's rhetoric of "One China" versus the more civilizational, less state-oriented vision of "Greater China" suggested by a pan-Chinese audio-visual audience; about whether or not China's leaders fully understand the extent to which they have invited the rest of the world to take an active interest in China's "internal affairs" as they take steps like joining the WTO and hosting the Summer Olympics; and about differences, similarities, cooperation and competition between the three centers of Chinese television production (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan). This is a scholarly work, but highly accessible, original and compelling.
Television in Post-Reform China: Serial Dramas, Confucian Leadership and the Global Television Market (Routledge Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia) Overview

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Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia Review

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Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia ReviewWhy have some states been more successful at facilitating rapid economic growth than others? "Paths to Development in Asia" compares the experiences of Korea, Indonesia, China, and Vietnam to help provide answers. Many had thought that the end of the Soviet Union meant that the states' role would now be greatly limited. Instead, it turned out that in developing Asian nations, controlled mobilization and suppression of the populace had a positive effect on state cohesion and subsequent economic development, while mass incorporation (democracy) and laissez-faire policies did not. Vu also points out that the 'big-bang' mode has been the prevalent mechanism of state formation in recent years - a mode that facilitates wholesale change.

Vu's examination begins with South Korea. Vu contends that several elements helped create a foundation of strong societal cohesion in Korea prior to its economic rise. One of the first was that both prior to and after the Korean War, the populations of both South and North Korea tended to sort themselves out - supporters of Kim Il Sung went north, while those favoring Rhee stayed or went South. Syngman Rhee, South Korea's first leader after the end of WWII, had initiated land reform in that nation over the 1949-54 period. Peasants were required to pay landlords in installments for land received, a requirement that the Korean Communist Party opposed. In return, Rhee violently suppressed that opposition group, and others. Prior to Rhee, the Japanese had built a cadre of efficient officials and a large police force to replace the corrupt, inefficient monarchy that had existed. The Japanese had also aligned themselves with wealthy Korean entrepreneurs using subsidies, loans, contracts, and strict controls over workers - providing a history of stable industry and work relations. Rhee's government had also used propaganda and coercion to eg. get peasants to replace thatched roofs with composition or tile (eliminate a major fire hazard) - laggards had their roofs torn off by local officials. Rhee's resignation, however, was forced by student protests over 1960 election violence, fueled by the preceding rapid expansion of its education system, and a declining economy. General Park then seized power, declared martial law, and dissolved the National Assembly - leaving himself solely in charge with little/no viable opposition force.

Rhee had contributed decisively to building a unified development structure, but failed to use it to pursue development. The country was in economic decline - lagging even North Korea. General Park seized power after Rhee's abdication, declared martial law, and dissolved the National Assembly - leaving himself solely in charge with little/no opposition force. However, Park was still facing that same spectre of economic decline, as well as potential rivals in the military. Thus, he quickly proceeded to use the nation's cohesion to focus on building South Korea's economy.

Switching to China, Vu observes that when Mao declared the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he had a cohesive core of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders already well imbued with the 'correct line,' plus a loyal four million-man military. CCP administrative power extended down to the village level, and its strength so impressed Stalin that he provided Soviet aid (men, materials, money). Campaigns against 'anti-revolutionaries' and former loyalist followers of Chiang Kai Shek further unified the society. Then came land-reform cooperatives (resisted at first) which eventually seemed to further unify the peasants and destroy opposing elites, but left smoldering resentment.

Mao then made three more successive major errors that undermined cohesion. First came the 1957 campaign ('Let 1,000 flowers bloom') that was supposed to allow mild criticisms of government leaders; when the criticisms turned into an unexpected torrent, Mao's 'Anti-Rightist' campaign followed - again aimed at solidifying support. Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' followed in 1958, and was his next major mistake, directly responsible for an estimated 20 million deaths due to starvation and the loss of Soviet support (they thought he was 'crazy'). Mao's fourth major error was launching the Cultural Revolution' (1965-68) to stomp out thinking resentful of CCP leadership up to that point. Mao's death in 1976 left a populace highly resentful of CCP leadership to-date; that leadership, in turn, realized that it needed to quickly implement economic improvement to stay in power. Their first act was to free the peasants from major government dictates (what to grow, etc.), as well as the requirements and limitations of communal living and farming. These steps quickly eliminated a major source of peasant discontent and boosted food supplies (a major concern for the entire nation). Soon after came the leaders' decision to continue linking CCP officials' career paths to performance - only now it would be that of their area's economic progress. China had again become unified, cohesive, and ready for major change.

Similarly, with other Asian nations, per Vu's accounting. He also points out instances when Asian nations' ability to grow was limited by lack of unity - India (a number of castes, multiple political parties) offers a prime example.

Summarizing, Vu concludes that "all states are not born equally - some are better endowed with cohesive structures" than others. However, he also quotes Chalmers Johnson's observation that though authoritarianism is the most common regime type, it rarely is accompanied by high-speed, equitable economic growth. Apparently, cohesion is a necessary but not sufficient requirement.Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia Overview

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Doing Business In China: How to Profit in the World's Fastest Growing Market Review

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Doing Business In China: How to Profit in the World's Fastest Growing Market ReviewThis is a must-read for any Western business people venturing into China.
As a Chinese living in US for 10 years, I am amazed by Ted's understanding and appreciation of some of the subtleties of the Chinese culture, e.g. reluctance to say no, huge concern for one's face or mianzi. His treatment of the expat life in China is objective and comprehensive. He also paints an excellent picture of what aspects of China are morphing to be more western-like. His opinions and advices are specific, and backed by facts and his 18-year first-hand experience on the ground. For the thorniest issue, corruption, Ted gave a sound advice of never getting your foot wet in it.
Ted's writing is easy to read. The summaries at the end of each chapter are very useful references.
One thing Ted did not give enough coverage, in my opinion, is the implication of the strong nationalism sentiment reinforced by the Chinese Community Party through the schooling system as well as the media. A lot of Chinese people view the Western powers as greedy and unfriendly because of the humiliation and exploitation suffered by the Chinese in late 1800's and early 1900's. That sentiment is at the root of a lot of the sensitivities.
Another thing I did not quite like is that the catchy subtitle is somewhat misleading. A more accurate subtitle would be "What you have to know before and during doing business in China". But that is a petty flaw in a no-nonsense book.Doing Business In China: How to Profit in the World's Fastest Growing Market Overview

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China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon? (African Arguments) Review

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China in Africa: Partner, Competitor or Hegemon (African Arguments) ReviewThis book contains a wealth of information concerning: China's new foreign policy towards Africa; the perceptions (both positive and negative) of the Africans towards the Chinese and their activities in the region; the current tendency of African nations to turn their support away from the U.S. and the West and towards China; and Western reactions to Chinese involvement in Africa.

This is a relatively short book (136 pages) that is easily read and understood. In my opinion it is very balanced in its presentation of the topic - not making a judgment of whether increased involvement in Africa by China is a positive or negative trend, but simply stating the facts as the author sees them.
Highly recommend this book for anyone looking for detailed information about China's increasing involvement in Africa.
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The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us Review

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The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us ReviewI have read a number of books in the last 6-9 months that deal specifically with the economic rise by China and correlating threat for the US ("China Shakes the World" comes to mind). "The World Is Flat" also is in the same vein.
In "The Elephant and the Dragon" (245 pages), Robyn Meredith, a Hong Kong-based journalist for Forbes magazine, does an excellent job setting the table of what is going on these days in China (some of it was a repeat for me) and also in India, which I am less familiar with, and hence that peaked my interest. Meredith makes the point that "It is easy to see why India has not yet attracted many new factories. India's developing-world infrastructure prevents companies from exporting their goods cheaply and quickly." The author also demonstrates how "Creating vast numbers of jobs for India's poor is critical, literally a matter of life and death". The environmental problems of China (but also India) are well documented. Observes the author: "China already has environmental regulations on its books. But it is less zealous about protecting its air and water than about protecting economic growth."
The real pay-off for this book, however, comes in the lsat chapter, "A Catalyst for Competitiveness", in which the author addresses the challenges for the US head-on, and then makes a number of suggestions. The author demonstrates in a clear fashion how disastrous it would be for China to reevaluate its currency by 20-40 percent (or for the US to slap an import duty on that magnitude on Chinese imports), and that even if it happened, it would have little impact on the US job market, and furthermore how Americans are directly benefitting from the cheaper Chinese currency. Meredith dryly observes that of course we wouldn't be dealing with this, if consumers simply stopped shopping at Walmart (which, incidentally, as a single company imports more from China than all of Canada COMBINED.) Here is the author's bottom line: "[W]hat the United States must do is clear: it must strengthen its educational and economic foundations and foster the innovation that will keep the United Staes ahead in the technology that underpins so many parts of the nation's culture and the global economy". The author then expands on that in the book's final pages. Must-read!
I can only hope our policy makers in Washington and elsewhere are reading this book, and start acting in the best economic interest of our country, rather than acting out of short term elections-driven positioning! Because of the impending impact all of this will have on today's youth, this book should be required reading for all high school seniors and for college kids. Highly recommended!The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us Overview

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