Re: [Pen-l] Renewed speculation on the character of the Chinese economy

[Jim Devine]

 Marv Gandall wrote:
> World Bank data shows investment by state-run companies accounted for a 
> bigger share of Chinese growth last year, mainly the effect of the massive 
> stimulus injected into the economy to counter the global downturn. Most 
> spending was on infrastructure and a vast expansion of credit by state-run 
> banks; the proportion of production by state-controlled companies only edged 
> up slightly. But there's no compelling evidence that heightened state 
> intervention in China - as everywhere else in the wake of the crisis - marks 
> a reversal of the decades-old trend towards private ownership and property 
> relations and a social democratic political culture, despite it having 
> inevitably "fuelled discussion among analysts" about whether the economy is 
> really headed in that direction or remains socialist, as the state and party 
> continue to maintain. Still, the report notes that 99 of the top 100 publicly 
> listed companies are majority controlled by the state, a role assigned to the 
> public sector which goes far beyond what European social democrats and 
> unambiguously pro-capitalist Asian regimes earlier envisaged for the 
> commanding heights of the economy.<

I know that the terminology hasn't been standardized, but contemporary
China seems an example of state capitalism, in contrast to the old
China (under Mao) which I'd call "bureaucratic socialism."
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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