Fox Zhi Yong Hu

Deconstructing State-Owned Enterprises in Socialist China under Reform: A Scalar Examination

Studies of economic transformation under socialism in general, and the growth and development of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in particular, have been based on the assumption that SOEs are a homogeneous entity. With few exceptions, the extant literature tends to compare SOEs as a whole with other economic sectors. Little has been written about the heterogeneous nature of SOEs. The author examines the internal variation of SOEs at different administrative levels in terms of productivity and profitability in China, which remains one of the largest socialist economies undergoing profound structural changes. The performance of SOEs is found to have varied significantly among the administrative hierarchy of the socialist political system. The changing politics of scale from promoting regional self-reliance in the Maoist era toward both expanding SOE autonomy and fiscal decentralization in the post-Maoist era, has resulted in an increase in the disparity between the SOEs affiliated with the national government and those affiliated with local governments. The investigation of SOEs in the Chinese context raises important theoretical questions concerning the growth dynamics of SOEs and suggests the need for a more careful and path-dependent treatment of socialist economies under reform. The growth of SOEs in transitional socialist economies provides an interesting testing ground in which to evaluate the theoretical discourse concerning the politics of scale and the rescaling of politics.

Industrial capitalisation and spatial transformation in Chinese cities: Strategic repositioning, state-owned enterprise capitalisation, and the reproduction of urban space in Beijing

This study examines the urbanisation of capital in the context of a socialist economy undergoing profound market transition. It identifies the dynamics of state capital as a ‘missing link’ in understanding the variegated forces shaping Chinese cities through a case study of Beijing – China’s capital city. Contrary to the popular perception of the rolling back of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as a natural outcome of capital switching from a declining primary circuit to a booming secondary circuit, this empirical study of urban transformation in the Beijing metropolis identifies an intriguing trajectory of ‘capitalisation without privatisation’ whereby the commodification of the land and housing market has been accompanied by a growing share of capital assets under the ownership control of SOEs and a spatial concentration of state capital toward the city centre since the turn of the new century. The development experience centred on the capitalisation of SOEs is shown to be reflective of the new strategic vision to remake Beijing as a national hub of corporate control and the persistent syndrome of soft budget constraint characterising SOEs under a reformed management system that prioritises operational scale and asset appreciation. The new dynamics of state capital in Beijing is found to be associated with eviscerated domestic private investment and the spatial redistribution of rural–urban migrants towards the urban fringe. The case study has implications for ongoing inquiries into the urbanisation of capital in transitional urban China and points to the need to pay adequate attention to the growth and resilience of state capital in the Chinese ‘game’ of landed-property production and capital circulation.

Public housing and educational attainment in Asia's global city: An empirical study of Hong Kong

In recent years, the relationship between public housing and childrens educational attainment has been a hotly debated topic in urban housing and education policy studies. Most studies on the subject have been based on experiences in western cities characterized by a diminishing and residualized public housing sector. It remains unknown whether the same mechanisms identified in the extant literature can be applied to make sense of the situation in alternative social and housing contexts. This study assesses the impact of public housing residence on the educational achievement of children in Hong Kong within a stable and resilient public housing sector. A propensity score matching estimation reveals that children aged 19–22 living in public housing are less likely to study for a degree in a local university and more likely to be not in employment, education or training than their private housing counterparts. Given the favorable physical and neighborhood environment characterizing public housing in Hong Kong, this negative relationship tends to suggest an account in connection with the restricted access to high-performing schools for public housing children. The paper challenges the perceived notion about the unambiguously positive social impact of public housing scheme in the context of Hong Kong. The case study points to the need for a place-specific analysis of the variegated mechanisms linking public housing with childrens education. It highlights the practical implications for a closer integration of public housing and public school policies in Hong Kong.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA'S STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES: A STATISTICAL EXAMINATION

Abstract The growth dynamics of SOEs in Chinas transitional economy had long been a research topic attracting much scholarly attention within China studies. With few exceptions, the existing interpretations are all based on a common assumption to understand SOEs as a closed, homogeneous entity driven by the same structural force of state-market interaction across different regional economies. Little is known about the internal variations of the growth dynamics of Chinas SOEs. Drawing upon the recent theories of firm-territory relational nexus in new economic geography, this paper examines the uneven growth and performance of SOEs in socialist China under transformation. SOEs in north and northeast China are found to be much larger than SOEs in south China, whereas their productive performance had been greatly lagged behind by the latter. Statistical exercise reveals that intra-regional organization of production system played an important role in shaping the productive efficiency of SOEs in China. Localized production and market linkages, diversified local labor market and dense corporate networks with foreign enterprises are all regionally specific traded and untraded relationships affecting the labor productivity of Chinas state-owned sector. The investigation of region dynamics of SOEs in the Chinese context suggests the need of a regional lens in analyzing the path-dependent nature of industrial transformation in transitional socialist economy.