Just how capitalist is China?

Vol. 34 No. 4 (2014)

Oct-Dec / 2014
Published October 1, 2014
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Nasser Appel, Tiago. 2014. “Just How Capitalist Is China?”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 34 (4):656-69. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-3157-2014-2450.

Just how capitalist is China?

Tiago Nasser Appel
Doutorando em Economia Política Internacional no Instituto de Economia (IE) da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ),
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 34 No. 4 (2014), Oct-Dec / 2014, Pages 656-669

Abstract

In this paper, we review old and modern conceptions of “capitalism” and then we evaluate how “well” China fares on three touchstones of capitalism: competitive markets, generalization of wage-labour, and private ownership of the means of production. While we accept that China has come a long way under the first two criteria since the 1980s, we do not deem China yet to be a full-fledged capitalist economy for the State still wields great power through the allocation of massive state resources and control of large and highly profitable state enterprises, which dominate key sectors of the economy. 

JEL Classification: B14, E22, L32.


Keywords: China Capitalism State-Enterprises Social Control of Investment