Thomas Heberer

Weapons Of The Rich. Strategic Action Of Private Entrepreneurs In Contemporary China

Thomas Heberer

This book provides a fresh perspective on the political agency of private entrepreneurs in contemporary China. Most Chinese scholarship describes this group as being politically acquiescent due to systematic co-optation by the party state. This book, however, argues that private entrepreneurs should be understood, and analytically conceptualized, as a 'strategic group' that makes use of different formal and informal channels to safeguard and expand its interests, though so far it has not challenged the current regime. State-business relations in contemporary China should thus be understood not in terms of mere clientelism, but as a dynamic symbiosis in which private entrepreneurs contribute substantially to policy and institutional change. This book is based on several years of comparative empirical fieldwork across China. With its rich and unique qualitative data and insights, this volume contributes significantly to our understanding of the political behaviour and impact of private entrepreneurs in contemporary China. Contents: About the AuthorsAcknowledgmentsList of FiguresList of TablesIntroductionThe Rise and Current State of China's Private SectorPrivate Sector Development and State–Business Relations in Post-Mao China: The State of the FieldConceptual Framework: Private Entrepreneurs as a 'Strategic Group'Investigating Strategic Action via Formal ChannelsInformal and 'Connective' Strategic ActionConclusionAppendixIndex Readership: Undergraduate students of Chinese studies, Asian politics and society, and economics, as well as entrepreneurs.Private Entrepreneurs;Private Sector Development;Strategic Group;State-business Relations;Private Sector Development;Collective Entrepreneurial Action;Connective Entrepreneurial Action;Formal and Informal Policy Influence of Private Entrepreneurs0 Key Features: Utmost empiricalUtmost comparativeRich in primary sources

Doing Business in Rural China

Thomas Heberer

Longlisted for the 2009 ICAS Book AwardMountainous Liangshan Prefecture, on the southern border of Sichuan Province, is one of China's most remote regions. Although Liangshan's majority ethnic group, the Nuosu (now classified by the Chinese government as part of the Yi ethnic group), practiced a subsistence economy and were, by Chinese standards, extremely poor, their traditional society was stratified into endogamous castes, the most powerful of which owned slaves. With the incorporation of Liangshan into China's new socialist society in the mid-twentieth century, the Nuosu were required to abolish slavery and what the Chinese government considered to be superstitious religious practices. When Han Chinese moved into the area, competing with Nuosu for limited resources and introducing new cultural and economic challenges, some Nuosu took advantage of China's new economic policies in the 1980s to begin private businesses.In Doing Business in Rural China , Thomas Heberer tells the stories of individual entrepreneurs and presents a wealth of economic data gleaned from extensive fieldwork in Liangshan. He documents and analyzes the phenomenal growth during the last two decades of Nuosu-run businesses, comparing these with Han-run businesses and asking how ethnicity affects the new market-oriented economic structure and how economics in turn affects Nuosu culture and society. He finds that Nuosu entrepreneurs have effected significant change in local economic structures and social institutions and have financed major social and economic development projects. This economic development has prompted Nuosu entrepreneurs to establish business, political, and social relationships beyond the traditional social confines of the clan, while also fostering awareness and celebration of ethnicity.