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发帖数: 33885 | 1 这位洋教授的中国评论是非常棒的。
China: Reformers and Compradors
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton
University, New York.
09.11.2015 :: Analysis
China’s wealthiest classes have secured their recent fortunes through
various means, both legal and illegal: These include (1) the privatization
of public enterprises; (2) the savage exploitation of cheap labor after
destroying workers rights , protections and social welfare legislation; (3)
large-scale, long-term corruption of government officials; (4) the often
violent state-sponsored land-grabs from towns, villages and farmers and the
land transfer to private investors; (5) real estate speculation; (6) changes
in state regulatory policies leading to oligopolistic control of markets; (
7) large-scale tax evasion, money laundering and offshore transfers of
profits and (8) state policies dictating low wage and salaries and
repressing workers collective action.
The Communist leadership’s pursuit of an ‘export-oriented’ growth model,
based on reducing labor costs to secure competitive advantages in world
markets, coincided with the emergence of aggressive Chinese capitalists
intent on increasing their profits and concentrating private wealth.
This model of capitalist accumulation required ‘capital-friendly’ labor
policies to attract large-scale, long-term investment from US, Japanese and
European multinational in association with China’s wealthiest capitalists.
China’s capitalist development was based on a triple alliance of national,
foreign and state capitalists, all of whom depended on the widespread,
massive corruption of state-party officials.
The Dynamics of Mature Capitalism
As the economy grew, national capital diversified from manufacturing to the
FIRE economy, (finance, insurance and real estate). As the economy “
liberalized”, overseas and local financial institutions proliferated.
Speculative profits attracted major investors as well as millions of middle
class ‘fortune seekers’.
China’s growth led to its rise as the primary market for raw materials and
the primary producer of imported consumer goods in Latin America, Africa and
Asia.
Its rapid growth provoked the US to build-up its bases around China and
launch a policy of military confrontation and encirclement as well as
regional trade exclusion (the so-called ‘Pivot to Asia’)..
The long, deep recession in the European markets and the financial crisis in
the US limited China’s high growth export model.
Meanwhile, second and third generations of skilled Chinese workers became
more militant, demanding and winning double digit wage increases. At the
same time rural communities staged mass demonstrations and took direct
action against corrupt local officials linked to land-grabbing speculators
and other attempts to drive them from their homes and farms on behalf of
powerful real estate interests.
Wealthy Chinese investors, who diversified into the FIRE economy, created a
speculative real estate bubble.
High-ranking party officials, who had enriched themselves through the
corrupt takeovers of lucrative state monopolies, caused economic stagnation
and deep political disenchantment among the mass of Chinese people.
Worldwide demand for China’s exports declined with the global economic
crisis.
Crises and Rectification
Faced with a major loss of political legitimacy, the stagnation of its
global export markets, a real estate bubble and stock market volatility, the
Chinese government launched a wide-reaching rectification campaign which
featured:
- A massive anti-corruption campaign was launched to restore morality to the
government and to win back public respect. Over 250,000 corrupt officials
were identified, investigated and tried. Many were imprisoned or dismissed
and some were executed.
- Reform of wage and income policies was designed to reduce inequalities and
encourage domestic consumption. As a result wages rose 10% annually.
- The investigation and prosecution of speculators, including investors
connected to foreign hedge funds and big oligarchs who had gained gaining
billions by “defrauding” retail investors, was initiated by the judiciary.
- The Chinese currency, the renminbi, was devalued to promote exports.
- The government increased military spending in order to confront the US
naval encirclement, including upgrading its of most sophisticated weapons
systems, which were on display recently during China’s massive ‘Victory
over Japan’ parade.
- Two new international investment-financial organizations was set up to
counter the US dominated IMF and World Bank and to encourage the
participation of regional trade partners as a response to Washington’s Asia
Pacific trade arrangements which specifically excluded China.
- Greater emphasis is now placed on providing domestic government services,
enforcing tax collection, broadening social welfare legislation and social
accountability.
- Measures are being implemented to prevent the flight of Chinese capital by
oligarch families as they flee criminal prosecution for their illicit
business activities.
The Response from China’s Wealthy Classes
China’s wealthy classes are resisting these government reforms designed to
lessen some of the class imbalances and injustices and to deal with the
multiple crises in the society and economy. They have been transferring
hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country – essentially
disinvesting and de-capitalizing the economy. They have expressed deep
concern that the increase in workers’ wages will cut into their profits and
that they will lose their lucrative contracts as well as access to
compliant, corrupt government officials. They are anxious to hide their
source of wealth for fear they will end up in the criminal docket with
corrupt partners in the government.
China’s wealthy classes have gone on a buying spree of overseas real estate
, fixed income securities, commercial properties, trust products, etc. in an
attempt to safely stash their wealth.
Large-scale speculation, the massive flight of capital and cancelling of
irregular state loans have all contributed to the current volatility in the
Chinese economy. China’s wealthy classes create their own self-fulfilling
prophecy: their capital flight and speculation creates the very volatile
conditions that then serve as the pretext for even more capital flight.
Crisis, Rectification and the Struggle for Power
The source of the current Chinese crisis is found in the behavior and
political alliances of the leading classes who benefited from the rapid
growth Chinese capitalism.
Progressive capitalist reformers believe that to end the crises requires
radical reforms. They advocate: (1) returning the financial market to its
original role as an instrument of productive activity; (2) reversing the
liberalization of the financial market, including ending speculation by
Western hedge funds, re-introducing capital controls, going after tax
evaders and punishing massive illegal transfers of profits to offshore
havens; and (3) increasing domestic mass consumption and imposing
restrictions on conspicuous elite consumption, via progressive income tax
and welfare measures.
The process of rectification has encountered passive resistance from the
comprador capitalists as they spirit their wealth out of China. Wealthy
Chinese have adopted a post-colonial comprador mentality born out of their
tight economic ties with Western capitalists. They absorbed the neo-liberal
ideology; they prize Western education and culture and turn to the US
imperial state to protect their wealth – in a dramatic shift of loyalties.
Their own children attend the most expensive private US universities where
they are indoctrinated with US elite-centered political and economic dogma.
They stash their money in high end real estate as an investment and to house
their families and children who attend elite US schools..
Conclusion
It is difficult for Chinese political and economic ‘reformers’ to solve
the problem of the comprador capitalist, because the ‘reformers’ have
engaged in similar behavior and practices over the years.
It is critical for the ‘reformers’ to expose the illicit wealth and go
after the compradors with aggressive prosecution. This will be difficult
because many reformers have family members among the comprador class, have
benefited from the speculative ‘boom’ and have sent their own children
abroad. Some may even have their own secret bank accounts overseas – the
profits from deals made with big investors.
There is no deep fundamental or class division between compradors and
reformers in China. However, the crisis and capital flight is intensifying
class polarization and external events are forcing a deeper rethink of how
China should confront US militarist policies.
The US military threat is causing problems for Chinese compradors and their
economist-propagandists. It is difficult to ‘sell’ the idea of opening
wide to Wall Street when the country is staring down the barrels of US guns.
In a strategic sense, this frenzy of Chinese capital flight legitimizes the
rectification campaign and weakens compradors’ influence in the economy.
Even some of China’s most ardent economic liberals are in flight!
Nevertheless, the reformers’ hesitant steps, their deep ‘faith in the
market’ and the massive presence of foreign multi-nationals inside China
indicates that real, deep, structural changes are not on the agenda. China’
s reformers have started their new version of “The Long March” through
many layers of corrupt, flawed and failing institutions …Bigger and more
consequential changes await the awakening of the working class. | b********n
发帖数: 38600 | | s**********s
发帖数: 1079 | 3 挖完邓矮子祖坟再挖牦腊肉祖坟，是腊肉兄搞大跃进搞十年文革把中国先搞破产了才有
邓矮子的绝望 | s**********s
发帖数: 1079 | | b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 5 你个湾湾还是挖将梅毒的祖坟去吧
【在 s**********s 的大作中提到】
: 挖完邓矮子祖坟再挖牦腊肉祖坟，是腊肉兄搞大跃进搞十年文革把中国先搞破产了才有
: 邓矮子的绝望
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