Making capitalism in China

Making Capitalism in China: The Taiwan Connection shows that small- and medium-sized Taiwanese investors are organized in production and marketing networks, not vertically integrated conglomerates. When in China they directly negotiate and establish partnerships with entrepreneurial local officials, not the central bureaucracy. Also, they effectively transfer a capitalist ideology of production to Chinese factory workers. Importantly, the investors attribute their business successes in China to the cultural, historical, and linguistic affinities they share with these local agents. Connections regarding socio-cultural identity do more than facilitate business dealings or ease labor relations; Hsing asserts that partnerships between mainland settlements and overseas Chinese investors constitute a local-global coalition of economic reform, one that strengthens local autonomy in China and bypasses the control of the central government. This coalition is nothing short of a new pattern of foreign direct investment, one profoundly influenced by both cultural boundaries (usually deemed insignificant in matters of capital flow and globalization) and local state agents (who operate in this case as crucial business partners). A notable work that will appeal to all students of East Asian economic organization, ethnic business networks, international investment, and the political economy of socialist transition. Hsing's book is based on hundreds of interviews and participatory observations that she conducted between 1991 and 1996 with investors, local officials, and factory workers in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangdong, Fujian, and Shanghai.