China's New Business Elite

The Political Consequences of Economic Reform

Margaret M. Pearson

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520207189
• eBook ISBN: 9780520923140
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Social Sciences

The transition from a planned to a market economy that began in China in the late 1970s unleashed an extraordinary series of changes, including increases in private enterprise, foreign investment, the standard of living, and corruption. Another result of economic reform has been the creation of a new class—China's new business elite. Margaret M. Pearson considers the impact that this new class is having on China's politics. She concludes that, contrary to the assumptions of Westerners, these groups are not at the forefront of the emergence of a civil society; rather, they are part of a system shaped deliberately by the Chinese state to ensure that economic development will not lead to democratization.


The transition from a planned to a market economy that began in China in the late 1970s unleashed an extraordinary series of changes, including increases in private enterprise, foreign investment, the standard of living, and corruption. Another result of

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1 China’s New Business Elite
• CHAPTER 2 The Janus-Faced Role of the Business Elite in Chinese History
• CHAPTER 3 The Autonomy of China’s
• CHAPTER 4 The Political Behavior of China’s New Business Elite
• CHAPTER 5 The Socialist Corporatism of Business Associations
• CHAPTER 6 The Emergence of Hybrid State-Society Relations in Post-Mao China
• APPENDIX 1 Foreign Direct Investment in China, 1979-1995
• APPENDIX 2 The Research Sample
• Bibliography
• Index