China's New Business Elite : The Political Consequences of Economic Reform

This book, though mostly a product of my own sweat, could not have been completed without the help of many others. I owe my greatest research-related debt to interviewees from the foreign and private sectors of China's economy who, in both 1991 and 1995, shared with me their time and their insights as to the evolving place of the "new business elite" in China. These interviewees represent an extremely impressive group of people, and I come away from this project feeling hope that they will be instrumental participants in China's future. I also thank Jan Borgonjan, Li Zhaoxi, and John Child of the China-EC Management Institute in Beijing for helping me in 1991 to get started with interviews. Once I had committed to paper my initial ideas, a number of friends and colleagues generously commented on the text, either in whole or in part. These friends and colleagues included The transition from a planned to a market economy that began in China in the late 1970s unleashed an extraordinary series of changes, including increases in private enterprise, foreign investment, the standard of living, and corruption. Another result of economic reform has been the creation of a new class—China's new business elite. Margaret M. Pearson considers the impact that this new class is having on China's politics. She concludes that, contrary to the assumptions of Westerners, these groups are not at the forefront of the emergence of a civil society; rather, they are part of a system shaped deliberately by the Chinese state to ensure that economic development will not lead to democratization.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.The transition from a planned to a market economy that began in China in the late 1970s unleashed an extraordinary series of changes, including increases in private enterprise, foreign investment, the standard of living, and corruption. Another result of