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Introduction

The Chinese Reform Experience: A Critical Assessment

Martin Hart-Landsberg

Department of Economics

Lewis and Clark College

Portland, Oregon 97219

USA

Email: marty@lclark.edu

ABSTRACT

The consensus among economists is that China’s post-1978 market reform policies have produced one of the world’s greatest economic success stories. Some progressives believe that China is now capable of serving as an anchor for a new (non-U.S. dominated) global economy. A few claim that the reform experience demonstrates the workability (and desirability) of market socialism. This article is critical of these views. Its four main conclusions are as follows: first, the reforms have led to the restoration of capitalism, not a new form of market socialism. Second, the gains attributed to the reforms have been seriously overstated. Early successes were largely due to the economic foundation established during the pre-reform Mao era. Moreover, the reform process has begun to undermine this foundation, increasing the country’s dependence on foreign investment, technology, and markets. Third, the reforms have produced an increasingly exploitative growth process, one that generates considerable wealth for a minority at unacceptably high cost for the majority. Finally, the reforms also produced a growth process whose logic led it to become enmeshed in, and dependent upon, a broader process of transnational restructuring, one controlled by transnational capital. As a result, China is not only incapable of serving as an anchor for an alternative global economy, its accumulation dynamics actually contribute to the strengthening of existing structures of power and the global imbalances and tensions they generate.

Keywords: China, market socialism, transnational production, economic development

JEL classification: O53, P30, F23

The Chinese Reform Experience: A Critical Assessment

Introduction

The consensus among economists is that China’s post-1978 market reform policies have produced one of the world’s greatest economic success stories. In a representative statement, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) notes that:

The pace of economic change in China has been extremely rapid since the start of economic reforms just over 25 years ago. Economic growth has averaged 9Ѕ per cent over the past two decades and seems likely to continue at that pace for some time. Such an increase in output represents one of the most sustained and rapid economic transformations seen in the world economy in the past 50 years. (OECD 2005: 16)

Significantly, many progressive economists share this positive view of the Chinese reform experience. In fact, as the U.S. economy shows increasing signs of structural weakness, a growing number believe that we may be witnessing the collapse of the U.S. dominated international economic order and its replacement with a new, more progressive one anchored by China. As evidence, many point to the Chinese government’s stated commitment to socialism and the fact that the country’s industrial activity generates a demand for imported inputs (manufactured goods from East Asia and primary commodities from Latin America and Africa) that appears capable of supporting economic growth throughout much of the third world.

It would be nice if this view of China was accurate. Unfortunately, as I argue below, it is not. First, regardless of what Chinese leaders say, China is not pioneering a new form of market socialism—rather capitalism has been restored in China. As a result, Chinese internal dynamics are clearly hostile to the creation of any anti-capitalist alternative.
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Author’s note: Many of the arguments presented in this paper were developed jointly with Paul Burkett. I also want to thank him for his thoughtful comments on an earlier draft.

Second, the economic gains attributed to China’s post-1978 market reforms have been seriously overstated. China’s early post-reform successes were largely due to the economic foundation established during the pre-reform Mao era. Moreover, over time, the reform process has begun to undermine this foundation, increasing the country’s dependence on foreign investment, technology, and markets. Third, and more importantly, the economic reforms have created an increasingly exploitative growth process, one that is producing considerable wealth for a minority at unacceptably high cost for the great majority of Chinese working people.

Finally, China’s economic experience cannot be understood in isolation from the broader dynamics of global capitalism. The Chinese accumulation process has become structurally enmeshed in, and dependent upon, the operation of the transnational corporate controlled production networks that largely shape these dynamics. As a result, China is not only incapable of serving as an anchor for an alternative global economy, its accumulation dynamics actually contribute to the strengthening of existing structures of power and the global imbalances and tensions they generate.