Conference : Speakers : Programme : Papers : Registration : Venue : Contact : Links
   
Carter, Connie
Casanova, Arnel
Gopalakrishnan, Shankar
Harada Hiroki
Harding, Andrew
Krusekopf, Charles
Likosky, Michael
Muchlinski, Peter
Nogami Natsu
Park Nohyoung
Tey Tsun Hang
Vaddhanaphuti, Chayan
Xu Feng

 

 


Prof. Xu Feng

Special Economic Zones and China’s Attempt to Move Up Global Supply Chains

Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese government has started its drive to move China from the model of “Made-in-China” to that of “Invented –in-China. However, China’s economic development to date has depended on quite different assumptions, which include a generally low-regulation, low-wage environment that is broadly incompatible with key preconditions of a knowledge economy. This environment has been fostered in order to facilitate massive inflows of foreign capital to a diverse range of special industrial zones (special economic zones, development zones, high technology zones and so on). While the product range and capital intensity of production in these zones have varied greatly, this economic development strategy has focussed far more on manufacturing and assembly based on proprietary methods and designs developed elsewhere.

Underlying the tension between these two visions of China’s economic future are complex power relationships over control of the regulation of the economy. These relationships only begin with the tensions evident amongst agencies at different levels of the Chinese state. Above all, there is a power struggle amongst the various levels of the Chinese state, foreign capital, and international rule-making organizations such as the WTO and the ILO. These tensions are especially visible in agencies in the regulated economic environment that mediate key factor markets. Among these are the proliferating forms of employment agencies mediating supply and demand in labor markets; industrial parks mediating supply and demand of technological and engineering knowledge; and the evolving mechanisms by which Chinese state and private firms mediate supply and demand for raw materials. Building on recent research by the author into the structure and function of various employment agencies, this paper will examine recent developments in both these agencies and industrial parks. It closes with some remarks on the implications and stakes of the most recent international downturn for these two important centres of economic regulation.