What do you think?
Rate this book
How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate
China has become deeply integrated into the world economy. Yet, gradual marketization has facilitated the country's rise without leading to its wholesale assimilation to global neoliberalism. This book uncovers the fierce contest about economic reforms that shaped China's path. In the first post-Mao decade, China's reformers were sharply divided. They agreed that China had to reform its economic system and move toward more marketization--but struggled over how to go about it. Should China destroy the core of the socialist system through shock therapy, or should it use the institutions of the planned economy as market creators? With hindsight, the historical record proves the high stakes behind the question: China embarked on an economic expansion commonly described as unprecedented in scope and pace, whereas Russia's economy collapsed under shock therapy. Based on extensive research, including interviews with key Chinese and international participants and World Bank officials as well as insights gleaned from unpublished documents, the book charts the debate that ultimately enabled China to follow a path to gradual reindustrialization. Beyond shedding light on the crossroads of the 1980s, it reveals the intellectual foundations of state-market relations in reform-era China through a longue dur�e lens. Overall, the book delivers an original perspective on China's economic model and its continuing contestations from within and from without.
358 pages, ebook
Published May 26, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 13, 2021
An incredibly important contribution to the history of development — it’s basically a story of the evolution of the single most significant (in terms of impact) doctrine and practice of development, namely the Chinese Communist Party’s turn to “reform and opening up.” Weber explains how a new generation of young Chinese elite cadres, who had been sent down to the countryside during the cultural revolution, came from that experience to realize that rather than class struggle, material development was the single most pressing imperative for the country, one rendered impossible by central planning. These young economists unconsciously aided with the neoliberal critique of state socialism being promoted at the same time in the west, while retaining a conscious fealty to Marx against the neoliberal ideal of an unrestrained market economy. The result was an argument in favor of greater use of market mechanisms and price signals for allocating goods, without for a second implying a withdrawal of party or state authority.
August 16, 2023
Honestly just super interesting. I wish I knew more and had more time to spend studying it. Just an extremely informative book on Chinese economics and approaches to market liberalization. If, for anything, just super helpful seeing approaches beyond the standard ones found in western economic discourse.
July 9, 2022
hard to describe exactly but this book is written in a very german style. no, i will not elaborate further.
September 24, 2023
EWIG habe ich für dieses Buch gebraucht. Dass ich es trotzdem gerne beendet habe, spricht Bände darüber, wie faszinierend seine Kleinteiligkeit ist. Der Titel könnte darauf hindeuten, dass Isabella M. Weber hier geradlinige Antworten auf eine geradlinige Frage liefert: Wie ist China der Schocktherapie entkommen?
Stattdessen liefert das Buch eine Chronik der gesamten chinesischen Wirtschaftspolitik und -philosophie, über Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende hinweg. Deutlich wird dabei das besondere Verhältnis der chinesischen Tradition zur Inflation. Die Angst vor dem wirtschaftlichen Kontrollverlust prägt die chinesiche Wirtschaftspolitik bereits so weit sie sich als solche zurückverfolgen lässt. Gleichzeitig zeigt das Buch die lange Tradition der staatlichen/kaiserlichen Eingriffe in die Wirtschaft.
Ein erstaunlicher Teil der jüngeren chinesischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte lässt sich mit einem einzigen chinesischen Sprichwort zusammenfassen, das immer wieder zitiert wird: Mit den Füßen nach Steinen tastend den Fluss überqueren. Die bedachte Vorgehensweise, die da mitschwingt, liefert praktisch auch gleich die Antwort auf die titelgebende Frage: China entkam der Schocktherapie und dem neoliberalen Kollaps, weil es weniger impulsiv handelte. Weil es Dinge Schritt für Schritt verändert und immer erst dann den nächsten Stein aus dem Jenga-Turm zieht, wenn klar ist, dass nichts mehr wackelt. (Oder sich auch mal traute, Fehler einzugestehen und einen ungelenk gezogenen Stein vorsichtig wieder zurück in den Turm zu stecken.)
Dass es ganz so simpel am Ende doch nicht ist, zeigen die hunderten anderen Seiten, die in erstaunlicher textlicher Dichte fast schon erzählerisch jede Wendung und jeden Konflikt durchgehen, den Chinas Wirtschaftspolitik in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten (und davor) durchlebt hat. Es ist eines dieser Bücher mit höllischem Rechercheaufwand, die schon beim bloßen Blick in die Zeilen Ehrfurcht erregen.
Stattdessen liefert das Buch eine Chronik der gesamten chinesischen Wirtschaftspolitik und -philosophie, über Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende hinweg. Deutlich wird dabei das besondere Verhältnis der chinesischen Tradition zur Inflation. Die Angst vor dem wirtschaftlichen Kontrollverlust prägt die chinesiche Wirtschaftspolitik bereits so weit sie sich als solche zurückverfolgen lässt. Gleichzeitig zeigt das Buch die lange Tradition der staatlichen/kaiserlichen Eingriffe in die Wirtschaft.
Ein erstaunlicher Teil der jüngeren chinesischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte lässt sich mit einem einzigen chinesischen Sprichwort zusammenfassen, das immer wieder zitiert wird: Mit den Füßen nach Steinen tastend den Fluss überqueren. Die bedachte Vorgehensweise, die da mitschwingt, liefert praktisch auch gleich die Antwort auf die titelgebende Frage: China entkam der Schocktherapie und dem neoliberalen Kollaps, weil es weniger impulsiv handelte. Weil es Dinge Schritt für Schritt verändert und immer erst dann den nächsten Stein aus dem Jenga-Turm zieht, wenn klar ist, dass nichts mehr wackelt. (Oder sich auch mal traute, Fehler einzugestehen und einen ungelenk gezogenen Stein vorsichtig wieder zurück in den Turm zu stecken.)
Dass es ganz so simpel am Ende doch nicht ist, zeigen die hunderten anderen Seiten, die in erstaunlicher textlicher Dichte fast schon erzählerisch jede Wendung und jeden Konflikt durchgehen, den Chinas Wirtschaftspolitik in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten (und davor) durchlebt hat. Es ist eines dieser Bücher mit höllischem Rechercheaufwand, die schon beim bloßen Blick in die Zeilen Ehrfurcht erregen.
July 10, 2023
A really good book on an important and under-discussed (if somewhat niche) topic. This book really gets into the weeds, so if you have only a passing interest in Chinese history political-economy then this is definitely not for you. If, for example, you've never heard then name Chen Yun, or if you don't know what "SOE" stands for, I think that's probably an excellent indicator that this book may not be for you. Still, Weber really ties together all that's out there and presents a super compelling and easy- to-understand narrative of Chinese market reforms and the economic debates that informed them them.
In terms of original scholarship, the main contribution to knowledge here, I would say, is the series interviews Weber did with the relevant economists. It clearly really helped her to cement her understanding of just what went down and how. Ironically, most of the time I found myself much less interested in some of the internecine debates than with the general profiling of how the reforms happened and why the Chinese approach worked as well as it did (Weber herself clearly feels the Chinese course of action was highly preferable to the alternative of "Shock Therapy" and she makes a highly compelling set of arguments for why that is).
On balance, a really awesome book. My one small critique was that her chapter on the Salt and Iron economic debates really didn't add anything in my opinion and could have been dispensed with entirely, but on the whole, a really great read.
In terms of original scholarship, the main contribution to knowledge here, I would say, is the series interviews Weber did with the relevant economists. It clearly really helped her to cement her understanding of just what went down and how. Ironically, most of the time I found myself much less interested in some of the internecine debates than with the general profiling of how the reforms happened and why the Chinese approach worked as well as it did (Weber herself clearly feels the Chinese course of action was highly preferable to the alternative of "Shock Therapy" and she makes a highly compelling set of arguments for why that is).
On balance, a really awesome book. My one small critique was that her chapter on the Salt and Iron economic debates really didn't add anything in my opinion and could have been dispensed with entirely, but on the whole, a really great read.
May 16, 2023
This is an extraordinary piece of scholarship that is vigilant against generalization and fastidious to documenting the debate over market reform in China.
Weber has made a name for herself as one of the most engaging and imaginative writers in our current debates on inflation and reading this book it makes sense why. She's talked to some of the most shrewd economic thinkers who helped usher in the most significant economic transformation of the 20th century — the transition from China's state-owned system to a market one.
While situated in China, the scope of the debate is global with Weber pulling in economic thought from West Germany, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Chicago and more. She takes seriously the historical analytical frameworks that the economists in China had of price volatility during the Sino-Japanese War as well as near-ancient dynastic debates like over salt and iron monopolies or the contrast of "light" or "heavy" goods.
There's a rich history of non-Western political economic thought that can offer generative insight today. Weber's book contributes enormously to that and her writing on the current economy is indispensable. I hope that decades down the line, someone will write a book about her contributions today — maybe they'll call it "How America Escaped Larry Summers" lol.
Weber has made a name for herself as one of the most engaging and imaginative writers in our current debates on inflation and reading this book it makes sense why. She's talked to some of the most shrewd economic thinkers who helped usher in the most significant economic transformation of the 20th century — the transition from China's state-owned system to a market one.
While situated in China, the scope of the debate is global with Weber pulling in economic thought from West Germany, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Chicago and more. She takes seriously the historical analytical frameworks that the economists in China had of price volatility during the Sino-Japanese War as well as near-ancient dynastic debates like over salt and iron monopolies or the contrast of "light" or "heavy" goods.
There's a rich history of non-Western political economic thought that can offer generative insight today. Weber's book contributes enormously to that and her writing on the current economy is indispensable. I hope that decades down the line, someone will write a book about her contributions today — maybe they'll call it "How America Escaped Larry Summers" lol.
May 3, 2022
It would have been a more delightful and informative read if the author had also focussed on other aspects of market reform such as trade liberalisation and privatisation, instead of focussing just on price liberalisation.
December 7, 2023
I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. It presents this era of chinese history in a new light (at least for me). The only thing I wished for it to do which it does not would be a greater economic analysis, but that is a personal preference.
December 24, 2023
A fascinating topic. I learned an extraordinary amount and I think the book has a really sound thesis. While in the beginning some of the chapters seem a bit random, there's definitely intention and a coherent structure. I think the book suffers from a lack of strong editing. Last chapters meander while also feeling really incomplete. But overall a good book!
April 16, 2024
I'm sure this is a great book, but I am just not the target audience. I cannot understand economic history or economics for the life of me, lol. From what I can tell this is a great book on this topic, if that's what you're looking for
October 17, 2021
Informative, but tedious and repetitive.
December 13, 2021
I wish there's more charts and figures, so I can see for myself the input-output, prices, and production data that these economists were debating over.
But still, this is a very impressive book
But still, this is a very impressive book
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
January 6, 2022pretty thesis like which I found difficult to get through.
March 31, 2023
Very academic and subsequently dry. But still worth reading to understand the fierce debate which characterised China's journey from a planned economy to a market economy.
May 16, 2023
Exceptional.
August 20, 2023
An impressive economic history of Chinese price reforms in the 1980s. As much as I enjoyed this book, 4/5 because Weber mentions the "crisis is danger and opportunity" trope! I don't make the rules.
March 5, 2022
George Soros will burn in hell for what he did to the Russians. The hero of the chinese miracle is not Deng but the competent academics and beaurucrats who were able to see western economics for the farce it was.
March 5, 2022
Este es un gran libro de historia económica de China. La autora, Isabella Webber, hizo un gran trabajo en analizar el pensamiento económico en la China moderna en sus debates internos de cómo reformar su economía de tal manera que pudiera aprovechar los mecanismos de mercado para desarrollarse. Lo cual sin duda lograron.
El debate dentro de China fue intenso sobre el control de los precios y la producción. Es un debate que además no era nuevo para la historia de China, pues ya había sucedido hace más de 2300 años.
La gran diferencia esta vez sería la seriedad con la que economistas chinos analizaron las reformas económicas de los países del este europeo y de latinoamericana ne la liberalización de precios al mercado. No sólo realizaron análisis teóricos, realizaron visitas a varios países, entrevistaron a gran cantidad de gente, hicieron encuestas, etc. Debatieron arduamente entre ellos. Al mismo tiempo que tomaban en cuenta la situación de la producción local y las instituciones ya existentes, algunas con siglos de existencia.
El resultado fue que si ben impulsaban la reforma de mercado, no se precipitaran a emprenderla. En especial por los costos políticos para el régimen, pues aprendieron que la inflación descontrolada había eliminado la legitimidad de gobiernos y destruido regímenes. A pesar de que la idea de tomar la terapía de shock neoliberal (eliminar todo control de golpe) había ganado peso, en cuanto la inflación comenzaba a crecer, detuvieron dichas políticas y regresaron un paso. Eso permitió a China evitar una debacle política para el régimen y recuperar una política más gradualista, pero continua, que al final ha generado uno de los desarrollos más remarcables en la historia de la humanidad.
El libro esta compuesto de ocho capítulos compuestos de tres partes. Contiene tecnicismos en su lenguaje. Altamente recomedable para los intereses en los debates económicos y en desarrollo económico.
El debate dentro de China fue intenso sobre el control de los precios y la producción. Es un debate que además no era nuevo para la historia de China, pues ya había sucedido hace más de 2300 años.
La gran diferencia esta vez sería la seriedad con la que economistas chinos analizaron las reformas económicas de los países del este europeo y de latinoamericana ne la liberalización de precios al mercado. No sólo realizaron análisis teóricos, realizaron visitas a varios países, entrevistaron a gran cantidad de gente, hicieron encuestas, etc. Debatieron arduamente entre ellos. Al mismo tiempo que tomaban en cuenta la situación de la producción local y las instituciones ya existentes, algunas con siglos de existencia.
El resultado fue que si ben impulsaban la reforma de mercado, no se precipitaran a emprenderla. En especial por los costos políticos para el régimen, pues aprendieron que la inflación descontrolada había eliminado la legitimidad de gobiernos y destruido regímenes. A pesar de que la idea de tomar la terapía de shock neoliberal (eliminar todo control de golpe) había ganado peso, en cuanto la inflación comenzaba a crecer, detuvieron dichas políticas y regresaron un paso. Eso permitió a China evitar una debacle política para el régimen y recuperar una política más gradualista, pero continua, que al final ha generado uno de los desarrollos más remarcables en la historia de la humanidad.
El libro esta compuesto de ocho capítulos compuestos de tres partes. Contiene tecnicismos en su lenguaje. Altamente recomedable para los intereses en los debates económicos y en desarrollo económico.
November 13, 2023
Weber的行文清晰可讀，歷史細節報導生動，最具啟發性的是她的比較視野:
1.書大分前(3章)後(5章)兩部分，前者勾畫出CPC 1980s經改的可能智識對照:管子的輕重思考、鹽鐵論爭議，歐美二戰戰時經濟體制，以及CPC解放初期的經濟管制體制；後者則分章逐步演繹1980經改的重要曲折:陳雲的思路，浙江莫干山以及巴山輪兩次會議呈現的經濟思想爭論(漸進v.震撼療法)，價格雙軌制的推出再到1988/89的動盪...
2.有些比較視角會呈現很好的啟發效果，乃至讓人重新思考之前的見解，甚至有哥白尼式革命的效果(這個形容方式不��確、只是想呈現衝擊)，先舉幾個例子
a.對比桑弘羊v.賢良的對立與價格管制v.秉持完全競爭的對立，Weber旨在凸顯前一組的實際面取向，與對照後一組對於「完美均衡」的追求
b.將Keynes說明戰時經濟導致的消費通脹壓力，對照出中國毛時代經濟發展重工業輕消費所倚賴的二元社会，其中農業部門犧牲的消費需求，Weber旨在提示兩者在經濟轉型上的類似挑戰
c.面對1980s價格管制所達成的成果(好與壞)，陳雲與吳敬璉等支持震撼療法等在總體經濟方面竟然會達成共識?讓應對當時通膨最不應該採取的總體緊縮方案歷史登場，政經社各層面都是!我甚至生出這樣的念頭，吳敬璉等人是「以儒飾法」的當代回歸嗎?
d.剛好這樣的視野對照也可以應用到台灣當前的蛋價補助議題，以Weber角度來論這基本就是政府如何應對seller inflation；而我對鹽鐵論的了解主要來自徐復觀先生的《兩漢思想史》，他基本上也是對桑弘羊持批判態度的，就是基於官商導致的弊病而發，除了針對史記所記錄的漢代史實，當然還有感於他身處當代的參照點:即蔣家的黨國體制;而這也是改革開發價格雙軌制已有流弊遭到詬病的所在，但是陳一諮、王小強等價格管制論者從實際調查出發認為這無法從價格解除管制得到解決，而是需要透過組織層面來逐步建構新的管理與激勵機制，就如同厲以寧所代表產權改革取向所示。看能不能用medium整理出比較完整的心得，因為Weber書中還提供了更多的精彩例子可以利用，特別是擷取自當事者的相關筆記(特別是Wood)
3.Weber所處理的題材因8964不可能會有簡體中文譯本了，但為何沒目前也還沒有繁體中文版本?Weber從俄烏戰爭引爆的全球通膨話題開始就一直是話題焦點，難不成也跟文安立的冷戰史新書一樣的遭遇?
1.書大分前(3章)後(5章)兩部分，前者勾畫出CPC 1980s經改的可能智識對照:管子的輕重思考、鹽鐵論爭議，歐美二戰戰時經濟體制，以及CPC解放初期的經濟管制體制；後者則分章逐步演繹1980經改的重要曲折:陳雲的思路，浙江莫干山以及巴山輪兩次會議呈現的經濟思想爭論(漸進v.震撼療法)，價格雙軌制的推出再到1988/89的動盪...
2.有些比較視角會呈現很好的啟發效果，乃至讓人重新思考之前的見解，甚至有哥白尼式革命的效果(這個形容方式不��確、只是想呈現衝擊)，先舉幾個例子
a.對比桑弘羊v.賢良的對立與價格管制v.秉持完全競爭的對立，Weber旨在凸顯前一組的實際面取向，與對照後一組對於「完美均衡」的追求
b.將Keynes說明戰時經濟導致的消費通脹壓力，對照出中國毛時代經濟發展重工業輕消費所倚賴的二元社会，其中農業部門犧牲的消費需求，Weber旨在提示兩者在經濟轉型上的類似挑戰
c.面對1980s價格管制所達成的成果(好與壞)，陳雲與吳敬璉等支持震撼療法等在總體經濟方面竟然會達成共識?讓應對當時通膨最不應該採取的總體緊縮方案歷史登場，政經社各層面都是!我甚至生出這樣的念頭，吳敬璉等人是「以儒飾法」的當代回歸嗎?
d.剛好這樣的視野對照也可以應用到台灣當前的蛋價補助議題，以Weber角度來論這基本就是政府如何應對seller inflation；而我對鹽鐵論的了解主要來自徐復觀先生的《兩漢思想史》，他基本上也是對桑弘羊持批判態度的，就是基於官商導致的弊病而發，除了針對史記所記錄的漢代史實，當然還有感於他身處當代的參照點:即蔣家的黨國體制;而這也是改革開發價格雙軌制已有流弊遭到詬病的所在，但是陳一諮、王小強等價格管制論者從實際調查出發認為這無法從價格解除管制得到解決，而是需要透過組織層面來逐步建構新的管理與激勵機制，就如同厲以寧所代表產權改革取向所示。看能不能用medium整理出比較完整的心得，因為Weber書中還提供了更多的精彩例子可以利用，特別是擷取自當事者的相關筆記(特別是Wood)
3.Weber所處理的題材因8964不可能會有簡體中文譯本了，但為何沒目前也還沒有繁體中文版本?Weber從俄烏戰爭引爆的全球通膨話題開始就一直是話題焦點，難不成也跟文安立的冷戰史新書一樣的遭遇?
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews