Slaughtering the sacred cows of China’s “economic miracle”

MIT political science professor Huang Yasheng disputes the common view of China’s economic development as a steady process of “opening and reform” in his new book Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State. More importantly, he casts serious doubts on the sustainability of China’s economic development and, by extension, the way of life urbanites (i.e. all of us) take for granted today.

The considerable data he marshals show China in the ‘80s to be much more dynamic and entrepreneurial than the China of the ‘90s and beyond. Not only that, this entrepreneurship was socially beneficial and rurally based. Yes, that’s right– those peasants you turn up your nose at were the brains behind China’s real “economic miracle,” not just the hired muscle.

In the ‘90s the government rolled back many of the reforms, taxed peasants mercilessly and sluiced the profits to cities and state-owned companies. He depicts nothing less than a war on China’s poor. In the middle there is, of course, 1989, which looms ever larger as we struggle to make sense of today and plan for tomorrow.

■ Lee Mack

Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State, Huang Yasheng, Cambridge University Press, US$23