1st Edition

Transforming Rural China How Local Institutions Shape Property Rights in China

By Chih-Jou Jay Chen Copyright 2004
    232 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    232 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    It is often assumed that privatization leads to profit, and that well-delineated property rights and a strong private sector will help boost an economy. This book investigates the property rights in Chinese enterprises in the reform era, finding that distinction between the public and the private are blurred, that national reform policies are implemented unevenly across the country, and that enterprises owned by local governments, in Shanghai, for example, are actually extremely profitable.

    Plates  Maps  Tables  Acknowledgements  Abbreviations  Introduction: Notes from the Field  1. Explaining Property Rights Transformations  Part 1: The Yangtze Delta Property Rights Transformations  2. The Yangtze Delta in the Reform Era  3. The Yangtze Delta in the Post-Reform Era  4. Shuang Village: The Case Study  Part 2: Southern Fujian Property Rights Transformations  5. Southern Fujian under Economic Reforms  6. Hancun Village: The Case Study  7. Local Institutions and the Future of China

    Biography

    Chih-Jou Jay Chen is Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica

    'Hail the brilliance of Chen Chih-jou. He has smashed this common (mis)understanding of China in a book that is nothing short of revolutionary in how we must come to understand China: in disunity' - Asia Times Online

    'This is one of the most insightful books on contemporary China, and arguably the most important.' - Asia Times Online

    'Debates over the role of the local state in China's market transition have generated an important substream of scholarship exploring changes in rural property rights. This book is a welcome contribution to the topic.' - The China Journal

    'Chih-jou jay Chen's recourse to a sociologial approach opens new perspectives for research into the development of property rights as they affect China's rural enterprises.' - China Perspectives