China's Harmonious Society Colloquium Series, Winter 2008

Organized by Jean Oi, Director, Stanford China Program at Shorenstein APARC; William Haas Professor in Chinese Politics; Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow at FSI
Co-sponsored with the Stanford China Program at Shorenstein APARC

Since 2006, the official doctrine of China's Communist Party calls for the creation of a "harmonious society" (hexieshehui). This policy, identified with the Hu Jintao leadership, acknowledges the new problems that have emerged as China continues its amazing economic growth. The economy is booming but so are tensions from rising inequality, environmental damage, health problems, diverse ethnicities, and attempts to break the "iron rice bowl." In this series of colloquia, leading authorities will discuss the causes of these tensions, their seriousness, and China's ability to meet these challenges.

Colloquium Schedule, January-March 2008 :

JANUARY 10
Village Democracy, Development and “Pork Barrel Politics”
Scott Rozelle, Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow, FSI, Stanford University
A key issue in political economy concerns the accountability that governance structures impose on public officials and how elections and representative democracy influences the allocation of public resources. In this talk, Rozelle discusses a unique survey data set from 2450 randomly selected villages. The data describe China's recent progress in village governance reforms and its relationship to the provision of public goods in rural China between 1998 and 2004. Rozelle and his colleagues examined two sets of questions using an empirical framework based on a theoretical model in which local governments must decide to allocate fiscal resources between public goods investments and other expenditures. They discovered--both in descriptive and econometric analyses--that when the village leader is elected, the provision of public goods rises (compared to the case when the leader is appointed by upper level officials). Thus, one may conclude that democratization--at least at the village level in rural China--appears to increase the quantity of public goods investment. Further, they find that when village leaders who had been elected are able to implement more public projects during their terms of office, they, as the incumbent, are more likely to be reelected.

JANUARY 24
Two Overviews–Health Systems Reform and the HIV Epidemic
Karen Eggleston, Fellow, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University
Media coverage as well as the academic literature give conflicting appraisals of China’s reality: Is China’s healthcare system on the verge of collapse? Why is healthcare so expensive and difficult to access in contemporary China? Have reforms “marketizing” healthcare drastically undermined progress in assuring affordable access for all? Or do hospitals and other providers constitute a last bastion of state control and bureaucratized monopoly in the name of equal access? Chinese analysts and policy advisers have engaged in a sometimes acrimonious debate; some champion a government-led, National Health Service-like model, while others passionately argue that market forces should play a greater role. In this talk, Karen Eggleston will present a brief overview of China’s health system reforms and current developments.
Nancy Shulman, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, Stanford School of Medicine
Nancy Shulman conducts laboratory and clinical research in the area of HIV therapeutics, with focus on antiretroviral resistance and treatment strategies of experienced patients, the impact of antiretroviral treatment on HIV co-receptor utilization, and HIV in China. She received her MD from Kansas University Medical School and holds a BA in biochemistry from University of Texas, Austin. She is a doctor specializing in internal medicine, pediatrics, and infectious diseases.

FEBRUARY 21
Between Han Chauvinism and Local Nationalism – Ethnic Iconography in China
Thomas Mullaney, Assistant Professor of History, Stanford University
The portrayal of China as a “unified, multiethnic country” encompassing exactly 56 ethnonational groups–55 minorities and the Han majority–has been a key component of China’s “harmonious society” project. In the iconography of ethnic diversity, which ranges from museum displays to children’s dolls, each ethnic group appears to constitute one fifty-sixth of the Chinese people. This balanced portrayal contrasts sharply with proportions based on population, land, political representation, and many other indices. In this talk, Mullaney explores the iconography of diversity, and argues that it has served as a means for the Chinese state to compress the Han with respect to the non-Han and to amplify non-Han with respect to Han. This strategy reflects CCP’s longstanding attempt to manage two divergent yet equally destabilizing demographic possibilities: Great Han Chauvinism and Small Ethnic Nationalism.

FEBRUARY 28
Political Cross Currents in China’s Corporate Restructuring
Jean Oi, William Haas Professor in Chinese Politics, Stanford University
Depending on where one stands, China’s state-owned enterprises have reformed too slowly or too fast. Some lament the incompleteness of China’s efforts to break the “iron rice bowl,” to free firms from inefficient industrial practices, to rid firms of non-production expenses. Yet, as incomplete and slow as the reforms seem to some, New Left critics charge that China’s reforms have gone too far, that SOEs have been subject to asset stripping, that firms have been “given away” and that the privileged few, particularly factory managers, have become rich capitalists overnight, through corruption and collusion with local officials. The losers in this view are the workers, who have been left unemployed, subject to layoffs, without health care, and sometimes without even their promised pensions–the very problems that prompted Hu Jintao’s fixes to create a a new “harmonious society.” These two views of SOE reform, while seeming to convey different realities, reflect the political cross currents that have shaped China’s corporate restructuring. Based on recent research in China, Oi will discuss how those charged with reforming SOEs have tried to walk the tightrope between too slow and too fast reform, and the consequences.

MARCH 6
** TALK CANCELLED **

Are Current Inequalities Unfair? The Citizen’s View
Martin K. Whyte, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
Are the growing levels of inequality in China creating increasing popular anger and feelings of injustice? Many recent analyses of Chinese social trends suggest that growing anger about gaps between the rich and the poor and distributive injustice are fueling popular protests that threaten to turn China into a social volcano. Hu Jintao and other leaders have responded with a number of policy changes designed to promote a more harmonious society, particularly by alleviating rural poverty. However, evidence from a national survey conducted in China in 2004 suggests that the average Chinese citizen feels surprisingly positively about most aspects of the current structure of inequality in that society and also quite optimistic about their chances to get ahead through the old fashioned combination of education, talent, and hard work. The talk will present some of the findings from this survey and discuss possible explanations for the gap between the conventional view and the survey findings.