Cornell University Press China's Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)

Today's China is governed by a new economic model that marks a radical break from the Mao and Deng eras; it departs fundamentally from both the East Asian developmental state and its own Communist past. It has not, however, adopted a liberal economic model. China has retained elements of statist control even though it has liberalized foreign direct investment more than any other developing country in recent years. This mode of global economic integration reveals much about China's state capacity and development strategy, which is based on retaining government control over critical sectors while meeting commitments made to the World Trade Organization.In China's Regulatory State, Roselyn Hsueh demonstrates that China only appears to be a more liberal state; even as it introduces competition and devolves economic decisionmaking, the state has selectively imposed new regulations at the sectoral level, asserting and even tightening control over industry and market development, to achieve state goals. By investigating in depth how China implemented its economic policies between 1978 and 2010, Hsueh gives the most complete picture yet of China's regulatory state, particularly as it has shaped the telecommunications and textiles industries.Hsueh contends that a logic of strategic value explains how the state, with its different levels of authority and maze of bureaucracies, interacts with new economic stakeholders to enhance its control in certain economic sectors while relinquishing control in others. Sectoral characteristics determine policy specifics although the organization of institutions and boom-bust cycles influence how the state reformulates old rules and creates new ones to maximize benefits and minimize costs after an initial phase of liberalization. This pathbreaking analysis of state goals, government-business relations, and methods of governance across industries in China also considers Japan's, South Korea’s, and Taiwan’s manifestly different approaches to globalization. Review "Conceptually, theoretically, and empirically, China's Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization is a pivotal contribution to the discourse on China's development model and regulatory landscape, to the literature on government-business relations, and to the understanding of patterns of state control as part of the discipline of political economy. Hsueh has accomplished a painstaking task of uncovering a critical facet of economic liberalization in China, further exploration of which might unearth newer aspects of China’s development strategy or bring out newer interpretations. . . . The book, while interesting and useful for general readers, is indispensable for scholars, researchers and students of political economy, international business, and international economics."―Romi Jain, Indian Journal of Asian Affairs (June-December 2011) "Through extensive interviews and painstaking research, Hsueh demonstrates a distinct pattern of government re-regulation even after China joined the WTO. In the process, she demolishes the myth of an increasingly unfettered Chinese economy. . . . This book is a must-read for students of political economy and for those seeking to make sense of contemporary China's complex economic landscape."―Andrew Scobell, Political Science Quarterly (Summer 2013)"Hsueh's book [is] a valuable addition to the rich literature that probes the complicated relationship between the state and businesses in the reforming China. ... In contrast to conventional studies that treat Chinese industry as a whole distinct from the state, the sectoral model allows Hsueh to differentiate between various industries according to their sectoral characteristics―their values to China's national security and competitiveness, in this study―and then examine their respective relationships to the government. ... a sectoral model makes it more explicit that the different endowments and strategic values attached to