China''s Economic Opening to the Outside World : The Politics of Empowerment

Based on information derived from interviews with the employees of over 30 companies in the People's Republic of China, this is the first book-length study to analyze China's turn to the outside world since 1976. The author presents both a detailed historical perspective and an interpretive explanation of China's opening, making this a unique contribution to the literature of contemporary China. By combining a traditional interest group analytical approach with a new hypothesis of 'empowering' grassroots change, Woetzel offers political scientists, businessmen with an interest in China trade, and economists a new, more complete understanding of the current business, political and economic climate in the People's Republic of China and the opportunities it presents for the West. Divided into three parts, the book begins with a detailed overview of the Opening as a political and economic strategy. Here Woetzel demonstrates that the Opening began as a scheme devised by the reform leadership in an effort to attack China's feudal economy. In the second section, Woetzel addresses the actual impact of this radical change in government policy. Following a discussion of domestic developments and the policy's impact on China's trading partners, Woetzel offers an invaluable examination of ventures in China -- a particular important chapter for those considering doing business there. In the final section Woetzel demonstrates that the long-term impact of the Opening has been to give new abilities to the individual Chinese, thus presenting the leadership with a major policy dilemma: they can either create new conditions which foster the expansion of individual abilities or face a potential revolution of rising expectations.