Abstract
China’s managed transition started with the economic and moved to the legal and social spheres. The “socialist market economy” deideologized economic activity and ownership. Private entrepreneurship was encouraged but remained under the constitutional authority of the Chinese Communist Party. The further success of political and economic transition depends on how central and decentralized forces balance one another off. In the interaction between regions and growth centres, those with a strong social component fare better. Decentralization is to the advantage of some groups, but it can protect vulnerable groups less. Industrial relations systems need to strengthen a consensus on the role of trade unions, employers and government. Representative systems should be developed further, with delegation of authority and accountability by those to whom authority is delegated.
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Notes
- 1.
The term “shock therapy” was coined by the economist Jeffrey Sachs. Its most prominent example was the Balcerowicz Plan in Poland 1990, named after the then Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz.
- 2.
Chen 2014, at pp. 19–54.
- 3.
UN Economic and Social Council, 1974, at p. 100.
- 4.
Levinson 1978.
- 5.
Kotz 2000.
- 6.
Deng Xiaoping expressed this “cat theory” for the first time in a speech at a Communist Youth League Conference in July 1962.
- 7.
[Amendment to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国宪法修正案 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó xiàn fǎ xiū zhèng àn), 2004.
- 8.
Cooney et al. 2013.
- 9.
[Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国劳动法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó láo dòng fǎ), 1994.
- 10.
The essence of the power structure of the Soviet Union was discreetly contained in Article 126 of the 1936 Constitution, which said: “…the most active and politically most conscious citizens in the ranks of the working class and other sections of the working people unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to strengthen and develop the socialist system and is the leading core of all organizations of the working people, both public and state.” Later the leading role of the Communist Party was raised to more prominent and visible articles of the Constitutions of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
- 11.
This position was explained by the leaders of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria in their “Warsaw letter” of 19 July 1968 to the Czechoslovak leaders, a month before the armed forced of these countries occupied Czechoslovakia.
- 12.
This was driven home to me when visiting a factory in Warsaw in March 1990. The representative of the traditional trade union had remained in his old office while the Solidarność representative had been installed in the former office of the local Communist Party Secretary.
- 13.
Lee and Liu 2011.
- 14.
Respectively, these are [Labour Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国劳动合同法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó láo dòng hé tóng fǎ), 2007; [Employment Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国就业促进法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó jiù yè cù jìn fǎ), 2007; [Labour Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国劳动争议调解仲裁法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó láo dòng zhēng yì tiáo jiě zhòng cái fǎ), 2007; and [Social Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国社会保险法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó shè huì bǎo xiǎn fǎ), 2010.
- 15.
J. Qiao’s research conducted in 2010 shows a percentage of 90.3 %, according to a survey of 1,811 enterprise union leaders, as quoted in Lee and Liu 2011, at p. 209.
- 16.
National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, China Statistical Yearbook, 2012. See also ILO Global Wage Database.
- 17.
[Labour Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国劳动合同法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó láo dòng hé tóng fǎ), 2007.
- 18.
Tapiola 1995.
- 19.
Cooney et al. 2013.
- 20.
[Amendment to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China] 中华人民共和国宪法修正案 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó xiàn fǎ xiū zhèng àn), adopted at the 2nd plenary session of the 9th National People’s Congress on 15 March 1999.
- 21.
The “Three Represents” were laid out by former President Jiang Zemin for the first time in 2000, of what the Chinese Communist Party should stand for: advanced social productive forces, advanced culture and the interests of the overwhelming majority.
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[Social Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China]中华人民共和国社会保险法 (zhōng huá rén mín gòng hé guó shè huì bǎo xiǎn fǎ), Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, adopted 28 October 2010, effective 1 July 2011.
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The “Warsaw letter” sent by the Party leaders of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria after their meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on 14–15 July 1968. Available at: www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/eu/mod05_1968/evidence_detail_14.html. Last accessed 19 June 2015.
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Tapiola, K. (2016). Economic, Social, Political and Legal Transition in China. In: Liukkunen, U., Chen, Y. (eds) Fundamental Labour Rights in China - Legal Implementation and Cultural Logic. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 49. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23156-3_3
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