Abstract
This chapter sets up the goal of assessing changes in China’s working class during the post-Mao era. China’s well-established SOEs are deliberately chosen for the purpose. Prima facie, China’s reforms which emphasise economic efficiency have created a situation in which the working class in society have experienced unexpected but fundamental changes. Such an observation has been obtained by in-depth investigation of a workforce in China’s SOE.
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Notes
- 1.
Xinhua News. (2021). Xi jinping: zai qingzhu zhongguo gongchandang chengli 100 zhounian dahui shang de jianghua. 15th July, 2021. Available on 12th September, 2022, vide: http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/leaders/2021-07/15/c_1127658385.htm.
- 2.
What is unit (danwei) and what is the function of unit system in China? Summarised from existing research, administrative units, public institutions and SOEs are at the centre of the redistribution system in cities as typical units, while rural grassroots organisations have some unit’s characteristics, non-state sector does not belong to the category of unit. Unit is a special form of organisation and social regulation in China’s urban society. It is the basic unit of social regulation and resource allocation. Unit has the meaning of the social structure, which means it is also a kind of social stratification system. The main characteristics of unit system are as follows: (1) The labourers’ overall attachment to the workplace is essentially the individual’s attachment to the state. Unit is incorporated into the state’s administrative organisation structure, so it is the organisation means of the state’s direct administrative management to the society and (2) it is the main place for members of society to participate in the political process (Li Meng et al., 1996; Li Lulu, 2002, pp. 23–32; Li Lulu et al., 1991, pp. 65–76; Liu Jianjun 2000; Lu Feng, 1989, pp. 71–88; Wang Huning, 1990; Zhang Yuqin, 2011, pp. 92–94).
- 3.
A brief discussion of the term, socialist market economy, will be discussed later because it supplies the ideological and political backdrop to the changes SOEs experienced in the reform period. However, this term is not the focus of my research. This research believes that “socialism with Chinese characteristics” provides ideological rationality for reform and marketisation of SOEs. However, many socialist countries have made this attempt. The essence is to accept the logic of the capital market and admit the inefficiency of the conceived socialist enterprises.
- 4.
Deng Xiaoping was the main leader of the CCP, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and PRC. He was then Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, Party Vice-Chairman, Vice-Premier and Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission; he is regarded as the chief architect of the reform and opening up by the CCP.
The CCP 12th National Congress: A major proposition “To construct socialism with Chinese characteristics” (Zhonggong shier da: tichu “jianshe you zhongguo tese de shehui zhuyi” zhongda mingti). (2021). Baomi Gongzuo, (08): 2.
- 5.
The original Chinese text: Shehui zhuyi de renwu henduo, dan genben yitiao shi fazhan shengchanli. Selected literature since the 16th National Congress (2008). Beijing: Central Party Literature Press.
Shehui zhuyi de tedian bushi qiong, ershi fu, dan zhezhong fu shi renmin gongtong fuyu. Xing Fensi (1996). Adhere to Marxism unswervingly, draws a clear line between Marxism and anti-Marxism. People Daily, June 6th, 1996 (Jianchi Marxism budongyao - huaqing Marxism he anti-Marxismi de jiexian. Shehui zhuyi guojia yinggai shi jingji fazhan de bijiao kuai, renmin shenghuo zujian hao qilai. Zhao Zhikui (ed.). (2008). 30 years of ideological history of Reform and Opening Up (Gaige kaifang 30 nian sixiangshi). Beijing: Renmin Press.
- 6.
The household registration system was created in the 1950s to designate people’s residential status.
- 7.
The original Chinese text: Guoying qiye zhaoyong gongren zanxing guiding; Guoying qiye shixing laodong hetongzhi zanxing guiding.
- 8.
Daguo fan refers to the characteristics of a public-owned economy. People eating from the same big pot means that people share the outcomes of their labour. In other words, it refers to the equalitarianism in wage distribution.
- 9.
Available on 12th September, 2022, vide: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2016-06/22/content_5084288.htm.
- 10.
The original Chinese text: Zhonggong zhongyang、Guowuyuan guanyu shenhua guoyou qiye gaige de zhidao yijian.
- 11.
The original Chinese text: Guowuyuan guanyu yinfa jiakuai boli guoyou qiye ban shehui zhineng he jiejue lishi yiliu wenti gongzuo fangan de tongzhi.
- 12.
The original Chinese text: Guanyu guoyou qiye tuixiu renyuan shehuihua guanli de zhidao yijian (zhengqiu yijian gao).
- 13.
The original Chinese text: Guowuyuan guoyou zichan jiandu guanli weiyuanhui. Guanyu guoyou qiye zhigong jiashuqu “sangongyiye” fenli yijiao gongzuo de zhidao yijian.
- 14.
The original Chinese text: Guanyu guoyou qiye ban shizheng、 shequ guanli deng zhineng fenli yijiao de zhidao yijian.
- 15.
The original Chinese text: Guanyu guoyou qiye ban jiaoyu yiliao jigou shehui gaige de zhidao yijian.
- 16.
The original Chinese text: Wuchan jieji he geming renmin gaizao shijie de douzheng, baokuo shixian xiasu de renwu: gaizao keguan shijie, ye gaozao ziji de zhuguan shijie—gaizao ziji de renshi nengli, gaizao zhuguan shijie tong keguan shijie de guanxi.
- 17.
‘Social class’ and ‘social stratum’ will be regarded as a unified concept in this section because these two terms can be used interchangeably in many situations. Sociologists like Max Weber and Peter Michael Blau use the two terms as one concept, and according to the Concise Encyclopaedia Britannica, the explanation of social class is actually the explanation of the social stratum (Blau, 1991; Weber, 1997; Wu Zhongmin, 2004, p. 87).
- 18.
This means people were born into their class status and so either experienced privileges or discrimination as a result. So, the class under Mao has a genetic or biological nature.
- 19.
Peasants without land or have insufficient land. According to Mao, they are the semi-proletariat in the rural areas.
- 20.
ISEI ranges from 16 to 90 points, while 16 points indicate the lowest possible socio-economic level and 90 points present the highest. The points are weighting calculated according to profession’s average education and income.
- 21.
Li also uses the reversed Chinese character ‘丁’ (ding) to describe this shape.
- 22.
Notes on the collective firms. The so-called collective ownership (da jiti suoyouzhi) refers to the ownership of emerged large numbers of cooperative factories that basically completed the socialist transformation of handicraft industry. The nature of the collective ownership is a local SOE owned by the whole people (Wu Jiapei et al., 1978). There are not too many differences between the collective firms and SOEs in terms of the nature of ownership, the plans for production and marketing, and the remuneration of labour wages is also determined by the state authorities. Unlike SOEs, the formation of collective firms’ fixed assets does not come from the state direct allocation investment, but from its own accumulation and surplus products created by their workers (including profits after paid the state tax). The management power of collective firms is concentrated in the local authorities (for instance, municipal authorities or as subsidiary units of SOEs) (Xiao Liang et al., 1980).
- 23.
Sun et al. (1994) discussed that among the employees in urban area, there were two identities: cadres and workers.
- 24.
This labour relation matches the original model of capitalism industrial production of Marx: the strict control of labour process, the strict management of workers’ production behaviour and the sweat wage system (Xu & Shi, 2006).
- 25.
“Sanfan” movement refers to the anti-corruption, anti-waste and anti-bureaucracy (fandui tanwu, fandui langfei, fandui guanliao zhuyi) movement that started within the party and state agencies in December 1951. “Wufan” movement refers to: on January 26th 1952, Central Committee of the CCP issued the “Instructions on first launching the ‘wufan’ struggle in large and medium cities” (guanyu shouxian zai da zhong chengshi kaizhan “wufan” douzheng de zhishi). It emphasised that relying on the working class, uniting with the law-abiding bourgeoisie and other citizens in large and medium-sized cities, to launch a large-scale and resolute and thorough opposition to bribery, tax evasion, theft of national property, cut corners and steal national economic information (fandui xinghui, fandui toushui loushui, fandui daopian guojia chaichan, fandui tougong jianliao, fandui daoqie guojia jingji qingbao) (Tong Hua & Ding Xiaoli, 2009, pp. 25–30; Wang Shanzhong, 1993, pp. 70–76; Zhang Junguo, 2008, pp. 75–80).
“Siqing” movement also known as the urban and rural socialist education movement is a political movement launched in the vast urban and rural areas in China from 1963 to 1966 with the purpose of ‘combat and prevent revisionism' (fanxiu fangxiu). Urban socialist education includes: oppose corruption and theft, oppose speculation, oppose extravagance and waste, oppose decentralism and oppose bureaucracy (fandui tanwu daoqie, fandui touji daoba, fandui puzhang langfei, fandui fensan zhuyi, fandui guanliao zhuyi); rural socialist education includes: clear accounts, clear warehouses, clear work points and clear finances (qing zhangmu, qing cangku, qing gongfen, qing caiwu). The content of the socialist education movement in urban and rural areas developed into four aspects: clear politics, clear economy, clear ideology and clear organisation (qing zhengzhi, qing jingji, qing sixiang, qing zuzhi), collectively referred to as the ‘Siqing Yundong’.
Many scholars believe that the “Siqing Yundong” prepared for the Cultural Revolution. This movement pointed to the cadres who were “four unclear” (si bu qing) politically and organisationally. These cadres were described as: have no distinction between enemy and people, lose their positions, exclude the poor and middle peasants, conceal their class attributions and falsify their history (diwo bufen, sangshi lichang, paichi pingxia zhongnong, yinman chengfen, weizao lishi) (Lin Xiaobo, 2003, pp. 48–56; 2005, pp. 4–10; Wang Yonghua, 2007, pp. 72–76; Wang Yuqiang, 2006, pp. 46–52; Zhou Huahu et al., 1993, pp. 335–339).
- 26.
- 27.
See Marx and Engels’s Communist Manifesto (1848). The nostalgia (back to Mao’s socialism) is contrary to Marx’s theory of the linear development of society.
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Huang, S.S. (2023). Introduction. In: The Political Economy of Reforms and the Remaking of the Proletarian Class in China, 1980s–2010s. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20455-5_1
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