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.

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.

Reviews

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 *

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 *

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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801487552
Author David Zweig
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 19mm