Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages

by David Zweig

Overview

China began opening to the outside world in 1978. This process was designed to remain under the state's control. But the relative value of goods and services inside and outside China drove cities, enterprises, local governments, and individuals with comparative advantage in international transactions to seek global linkages. These contacts, David Zweig asserts, led to the deregulation of China's mercantilist regime. Through extensive field research, Zweig surveys the extraordinary changes in four sectors of China's domestic political economy: the establishment of development zones, rural joint ventures, the struggle over foreign aid and higher education. He also addresses the crucial question of whether, on balance, internationalization weakens or strengthens state power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501717437
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/31/2018
Series:	Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Zweig is Professor and Director of the Center on China's Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Among his three previous books are Freeing China's Farmers: Rural Restructuring in the Reform Era and Agrarian Radicalism in China, 1968-1981.

What People are Saying About This

Edward Friedman

It is a wonderful book. What makes Internationalizing China special is its combination of methodological approaches and insights that reach far beyond the field of China studies to include contributions to both political science and contemporary politics. David Zweig's astute book is a tour de force and an excellent book on China's integration with global trends.

Richard P. Suttmeier

David Zweig offers an empirically rich, conceptually challenging treatment of a phenomenon of great practical and intellectual importance. Internationalizing China will become a standard source on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

This book provides excellent documentation and analysis of how China developed markets for several types of products within four main sectors: its urban centers, its rural regions, its educational institutions, and various international development assistance organizations (e.g., the United Nations Development Bank, or UNDP). These four sectors represent the overall focus of what Zwieg defines as internationalization, "the expanded flow of goods, services, and people across state boundaries, thereby increasing the share of transnational exchanges relative to domestic ones, along with a decline in regulating those flows." Having studied the Chinese political economy for at least a decade, Zweig offers several dynamic hypotheses to determine, for example, how the attitudes of Chinese bureaucrats changed from being highly resistant to supporting these transnational exchanges. He notes that China's future depends on the extent to which corruption, which can disrupt development tremendously, can be controlled by government policies. This thorough analysis is especially useful for scholars in comparative politics and international relations. Peggy Spitzer Christoff, Library of Congress

Library Journal

Zweig shows how China avoided the disruptive Big Bang reforms that have proved so damaging in Russia and Eastern Europe. Zweig's study is also a warning to those in the West who naively imagine that China's market opening is going to lead inevitably to political reform.

BusinessWeek - Mark L. Clifford

Zweig's study provides a helpful analysis and documentation of China's gaige kaifeng policies of the last quarter century, offering useful insights into the pull-push dynamics of local and external forces in the fields of local economic development, education, and development aid.

The China Journal - Peter Harris

Internationalizing China will appeal heavily to scholars and social scientists bent on dissecting the complex phenomena that swept over the Chinese economy in the 1980s and 1990s. And for businesspeople who lived and worked their way through these transformations.... Zweig's book will offer valuable insights and perspectives.

The China Business Review - Robert A. Kapp

Zweig has brought intellectual order to the chaotic process of China's opening to the world.

Foreign Affairs

Zweig's goal is 'to explain the how and why of China's internationalization over the last two decades of the twentieth century' (p. 22). His efforts result in both a wealth of factual data and a model of internationalization that is suitable for use by other China scholars as well as by those studying other liberalizing societies.

H-Net Reviews - Norton Wheeler

In... his helpfully organized, largely plain-speaking and enlightening book, Mr. Zweig calls for far-sighted leaders and public-spirited citizens to struggle against the 'crony capitalism' that can undermine China's growth.

Bookshelf - Jonathan Mirsky

Internationalizing China will appeal heavily to scholars and social scientists bent on dissecting the complex phenomena that swept over the Chinese economy in the 1980s and 1990s. And for businesspeople who lived and worked their way through these transformations.... Zweig's book will offer valuable insights and perspectives.

--Robert A. Kapp "The China Business Review"

In... his helpfully organized, largely plain-speaking and enlightening book, Mr. Zweig calls for far-sighted leaders and public-spirited citizens to struggle against the 'crony capitalism' that can undermine China's growth.

--Jonathan Mirsky "Bookshelf"

Zweig has brought intellectual order to the chaotic process of China's opening to the world.

-- "Foreign Affairs"

Zweig shows how China avoided the disruptive Big Bang reforms that have proved so damaging in Russia and Eastern Europe. Zweig's study is also a warning to those in the West who naively imagine that China's market opening is going to lead inevitably to political reform.

--Mark L. Clifford "BusinessWeek"

Zweig's goal is 'to explain the how and why of China's internationalization over the last two decades of the twentieth century' (p. 22). His efforts result in both a wealth of factual data and a model of internationalization that is suitable for use by other China scholars as well as by those studying other liberalizing societies.

--Norton Wheeler "H-Net Reviews"

Zweig's study provides a helpful analysis and documentation of China's gaige kaifeng policies of the last quarter century, offering useful insights into the pull-push dynamics of local and external forces in the fields of local economic development, education, and development aid.

--Peter Harris "The China Journal"

From the Publisher

"It is a wonderful book. What makes Internationalizing China special is its combination of methodological approaches and insights that reach far beyond the field of China studies to include contributions to both political science and contemporary politics. David Zweig's astute book is a tour de force and an excellent book on China's integration with global trends."

Edward Friedman

"David Zweig offers an empirically rich, conceptually challenging treatment of a phenomenon of great practical and intellectual importance. Internationalizing China will become a standard source on the subject."

Richard P. Suttmeier