Guardian Unlimited
Development in defiance of the Washington consensus
China has carried off the world's largest reduction in poverty by
grasping that market economies cannot be left on autopilot
Joseph Stiglitz
Thursday April 13, 2006
The Guardian
China is about to adopt its 11th five-year plan, setting the stage for
the continuation of probably the most remarkable economic
transformation in history, while improving the wellbeing of almost a
quarter of the world's population. Never before has the world seen
such sustained growth; never before has there been so much poverty
reduction.
[etc. here: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1752818,00.html]
If any confirmation of the correctness of Marty Hart-Landsberg and Paul
Burkett's "China and Socialism" (a book-length article in the July-August
2004 Monthly Review) was needed, you can look at the heartrending Aug. 1,
2004 NY Times article on the suicide of Zheng Qingming. This 18 year old
peasant youth threw himself into the path of an onrushing locomotive
because he lacked the $80 in fees to continue with college. It is the first
in a series of NY Times articles dealing with class divisions in China, a
country in which 85 million people earn less than $75 per year.
I strongly urge everybody to get a copy of the current MR since it is high
time that the left come to terms with what is happening in China. In this
post, I am recapitulating some of their main arguments for the benefit of
Marxmail subscribers outside the USA who may have difficulty purchasing a copy.
Not only do Marty and Paul put the nail into the coffin of Chinese
"socialism"; they pose broader questions about how to understand problems
of development. I can think of nothing since Robert Brenner's NLR article
on the world financial crisis that makes as big a statement as their
article and hope that it opens up some dialog on the left about the issues
it poses. This post is a first step in that direction.
In part one, Marty and Paul discuss "China's Rise to Model Status."
Obviously, one would expect people like Stephen Roach of Morgan-Stanley to
hail China's "unwavering commitment to reform." However, China has also
ingratiated itself as a model to so-called progressives like Joseph
Stiglitz who was profiled in the Nation Magazine of May 23, 2002 titled
"Rebel With a Cause". Referring to Stiglitz, Eyal Press tells us that:
"He also believes the spread of global capitalism has enormous potential to
benefit the poor. As an example of a country that has successfully
integrated into the global marketplace--but in a manner that defies the
conventional wisdom of the Washington Consensus--Stiglitz points to China.
China has adopted privatization and lowered trade barriers, he argues, but
in a gradual manner that has prevented the social fabric from being torn
apart in the process."
Full: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020610&c=4&s=press
I guess throwing oneself into the path of an onrushing train does not
constitute a rift in the social fabric.
When Stiglitz was in Beijing in July, 1998, he "called China by far the
most successful of the low-income countries' in moving to a market
economy." With 85 million people making less than $75 per year, one would
dread less "successful" examples.
full:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/SocialismChina.htm
