Economic Transition in Hunan and Southern China PDF
Preview Economic Transition in Hunan and Southern China
ECONOMIC TRANSITION IN HUNAN AND SOUTHERN CHINA This book is a comparative economic analysis of the five provinces of the Central-South Region of China: Guangdong, Guangxi (autono mous region), Henan, Hunan and Hubei. Of particular interest is a study of the impact of the new policy reforms and readjustment measures on these provincial economies. In tracing the influences of these reforms; special attention is given to the questions of labour utilisation and the choice and development of technology. The book examines the fundamental transition in the Chinese economy from the Mao era to the present Deng regime. It deals with institutional and structural reforms first introduced in 1977-8 and later in 1979. These have brought about several major changes: from a 'command economy' to 'market socialism', from investment to con sumption planning, from the collectives/communes to the production teams, households and even independent workers, and from collective farming to individual peasant farming, private plots and sideline activities. The choice of Hunan for special treatment is explained by the author's first-hand experience resulting from field visits and personal interviews, and its special significance as the province of Mao and his successor, Hua. The book explores whether the Mao-Hua 'leftist' influence still prevails in their province, and if it does, whether it hinders the adoption and diffusion of many of the reforms in Hunan compared with the neighbouring provinces free from this influence. Dr A. S. Bhalla is Chief of the Technology and Employment Branch, International Labour Office, Geneva. Formerly he was a Visiting Research Associate at the Economic Growth Center, Yale University. He has been Research Officer at the Institute of Economics and Statistics, Oxford University, and University Tutorial Fellow at the University of Delhi. He is the editor of Technology and Employment in Industry and Towards Global Action for Appropriate Technology. He has published articles on development planning, investment allocation, technology choice and employment generation in major economic journals. Economic Transition in Hunan and Southern China A. S. Bhalla M MACMILLAN © A. S. Bhalla 1984 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1984 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TO London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Bhalla, A. S. Economic transition in Hunan and Southern China. I. Hunan (China)-Economic conditions I. Title 330.951'215 HC4297 ISBN 978-1-349-07209-5 ISBN 978-1-349-07207-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07207-1 To Chiang Hsieh and Joseph Stepanek who aroused my interest in the Chinese economy Also by the author TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT IN INDUSTRY (editor) TOWARDS GLOBAL ACTION FOR APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY (editor) BLENDING OF NEW AND TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGIES (editor with D. James and Y. Stevens) Contents Preface X Maps XIII Glossary of Chinese Terms XV List of Tables and Figures XVI Abbreviations xix 1 The Provincial Economy 1 Hunan and the Four Neighbouring Provinces 1 Population and employment 2 Investment allocation 5 Land and agriculture 5 Industry 14 Construction 22 Commerce 24 Concluding Remarks 29 2 The New Economic Policy f'rame 31 Agricultural Pricing 32 Investment Reallocation 34 New measures to promote light industry 35 Heavy industry v. light industry 37 Decentralised Economic Management 39 Production Responsibility System 43 Labour Employment System 51 3 The Technology Policy Frame 56 Technology Choice and Investment Allocation 56 Soviet phase 58 The Great Leap 60 Cultural Revolution 61 Post-Mao period 63 viii Contents Research, Development and Manpower 65 Two-legs strategy in Rand D 66 Linking research and production 67 Shopfloor innovations 68 R and D expenditure 71 Scientific manpower 72 Technology Diffusion 74 Administrative Organisation of Science and Technology 79 4 Technology Imports and I<'oreign Investment 83 A Historical Perspective 83 Share of Foreign Investment 87 A Preliminary Assessment of Impact 89 5 Agricultural Mechanisation 94 A New Policy of Gradual Mechanisation 94 Implications of New Policy 96 Extent of Mechanisation 98 Mechanisation and Employment 105 6 Rural Industrialisation 111 Concepts and Definitions 111 Some Economic Facts 114 Employment and output growth 114 Inputs, Finance and Organisation 118 Labour supply and training 121 Supply of raw materials and equipment 122 Financing 125 Taxes and profits 126 Administrative organisation 127 Creation of New Enterprises 129 Retrospect and Prospect 130 7 Concluding Remarks 133 Competition Between Urban and Rural Industry 134 Exports v. Employment 136 Contents ix Appendices 1 Statistical Tables 138 11 Notes on Visits to Industrial Enterprises and Communes 146 111 Hunan's Textile Industry 159 IV Farm Machinery Research Institute (Changsha) 161 Notes and References 164 Bibliography 178 Name Index 191 Subject Index 194 Preface This book is based on data collected during my two trips to China, to Beijing and Guangzhou (Canton), in August-September 1980 (when I visited a large fertiliser factory, the South China Institute of Tech nology in Guangzhou, and the State Science and Technology Com mission in Beijing); and to Changsha, Xiantan and Zhu Zhou in Hunan and Guilin in Guangxi in November 1981. These two trips were financed by the ILO, by which I am presently employed. However, the views expressed in this book, which is written in my personal capacity, are solely mine and are not necessarily endorsed by the Organisation. Much of the information was collected during my second trip when I participated in an International Seminar on the Modernisation of Industry Related to Agriculture held in Changsha. I had an invaluable opportunity to interact closely with important Chinese government officials and scholars from Hunan, its neighbouring provinces and from Beijing, as both the foreign and Chinese participants stayed at the same guest house. I was thus able to indulge in lengthy discussions on several issues besides collecting useful primary data. The Chinese hosts also organised field trips for the seminar partici pants to factories, communes and research institutes in Changsha, Shaoyang, Xiantan and Zhu Zhou. I visited a number of small and large factories, a commune, and the Hunan Farm Machinery Research Institute in Changsha. My notes on these visits are presented in Appendices II and IV. The central focus of the book is on the impact of the new economic policies introduced in 1979 on the provincial economies of Hunan and other provinces of the Central-South Region. This impact is examin ed particularly in respect of the influence of economic reforms on the employment and technology choice aspects. The economy of the Hunan province is placed in the perspective of its neighbours: namely, Henan, Hubei, Guangxi and Guangdong. Chapter 1 of the book maps out the economy of Hunan since 1976 in the context of the overall economic situation of the Central-South Region. The population, employment, agricultural X
The list of books you might like
