2011 Videos
Wellington Conference on Contemporary China 2011
Growing Pains and Growth Paths: China and Japan in Modern Economic Growth
Date: 5-6 December 2011
Opening of conference
- Welcome by Tony Browne, New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington
- Keynote speech, Professor Gary Hawke, Victoria University of Wellington
Duration: 00:32:55
Summary
Well renowned economic historian Gary Hawke presented the keynote speech. Hawke identified two themes in economic history, change and continuity, by questioning the rise and fall of development economics. Through a series of reviews of economic thought Hawke showed the importance of acknowledging the long history of thought and identifying the continuity of development challenges. The call was put forward to identify new thinking, especially Asian thinking and to focus on the interaction of ideas and events.
Panel 1: Forms of Capitalism
Chair: Hugh Whittaker, University of Auckland
- Nobuharu Yokokawa, Musahi University, Cyclical Crisis, Structural Crisis, and Systemic Crisis in Bureaucratic Capitalism
- Xiaoming Huang, Victoria University of Wellington, All Roads Lead to Rome: China and Japan in the Development of Modern Capitalism
- Mon-Han Tsai, Chiba University, The Modern Trajectories of Chinese and Japanese Development – Late Development and Compressed Development
- Discussant: Natasha Hamilton-Hart, University of Auckland
Duration: 1:33:46
Summary
Nobuharu Yokokawa of Musashi University began by introducing his Super Minsky Cycle and arguing we are now witnessing cyclical crisis, structural crisis and systemic crisis in bureaucratic capitalism.
Xiaoming Huang of Victoria followed with a comparative study of East Asian economic growth. Huang identified the rapid period of economic growth for each country that characterised the East Asian miracle and posed the question of how these countries have responded to modern conditions, how they have organised their economies to promote efficiency and fairness and just how we can measure the rise and expansion of the modern economy in East Asia. Is there a model? Do all roads lead to Rome?
Mon-Han Tsai of Chiba University explored the long history of Japanese Chinese comparisons and identified five approaches: using Confucian/Chinese/East Asian concepts; a Euro-centric model; a Smithian/Hegelian/evolutionary social science approach; China as the first modernizer (such as in Fukuyama's latest book); and finally the compressed development approach. Tsai encouraged conference participants to reflect upon how their work fitted these broad categories of China Japan comparison.
Panel 2: Global Economic System
Chair: Marc Lanteigne, Victoria University of Wellington
- Ben Thirkell-White, Victoria University of Wellington, Development models versus external constraints: from the Structural Impediments Initiative to Global Imbalances
- Timothy J. Sturgeon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Innovation and Technological Learning under Compressed Development; Global Value Chains and the Prospects for Local Industry and Enterprise
- Shulong Chu, Tsinghua University, Global Economic System and China’s Economic Development
- Discussant: Gary Hawke, Victoria University of Wellington
Duration: 1:35:05
Summary
Ben Thirkell-White of Victoria began the discussion by comparing the international pressures for change and the growth challenges Japan experienced in the 1990s to the current position of China in the global system. The presentation situated the Japanese development 'model' in the global system and highlighted the importance of identifying interactions with globalization.
Timothy J. Sturgeon of MIT presented a quick overview of global value chains and the importance of modularity to the contemporary international economic order. Six historical phases of industrial organization were identified: vertical integration (1960s); global dispersion through offshoring by MNCs (1970s); geographic and organizational fragmentation with outsourcing and offshoring (1980s); new consolidation of global suppliers and the rise of China (1990s); services offshoring and global value chains (2000s); and finally, post-financial crisis. By using the examples of the Apple ipod and passenger vehicles, Sturgeon explored the challenge of development in the age of global value chains by focusing on the new challenge of climbing out of 'modularity traps'.
Shulong Chu of Tsinghua University looked at how China's economic development has occurred within the global economic system, arguing that reform and opening has been the key to China's rapid development. Chu identified the following fundamental factors: state/government capacity; education and work skills and ethics; market participation and utilization.
Panel 3: Industrial Structure and Growth Stragegy
Chair: Katsuji Nagakane, Aoyama Gakuin University
- Lei Song, Peking University, Foxconnization: Technology, Capacity Building and Coporations’ Strategy in China
- Katsuhiro Sasuga, Tokai University, Local Government and Private Sector: Accelerating Foreign Investments by Japanese Automobile Industries in China
- Nobuharu Yokokawa, Musahi University, Dynamic Comparative Advantage and Flying Geese Theory
- Discussant: Kim Fam, Victoria University of Wellington
Duration: 1:26:30
Summary
Lei Song of Peking University provided a detailed study of capacity building in the Chongqing automobile and motorcycle industries. Song addressed the modularity trap, outsourcing, indigenous innovation, open inovation and system integration in the era of compressed development. Song argues that while an expansion in production does not automatically equate to a rise in innovation, integration in the global value chain can lead to technological upgrading in the long run.
Katsuhiro Sasuga presented a detailed study of the Japanese automobile industry in China focusing on indigenous brands, production networks, FDI, government policy and the role of local government.
Nobuharu Yokokawa of Musashi University presented his second paper of the day. This time the focus was on what he describes as the dynamic comparative advantage of East Asian economies. Yokokawa concludes the flying geese pattern of development could be re-established at the global level (regional differences) in light of the global financial crisis.
Panel 4: Rise and Fall of the Developmental Stage
Chair: Xiaoming Huang, Victoria University of Wellington
- Bai Gao, Duke University, Classical versus Neo-liberal: The Chinese and Japanese Developmentalism in a Comparative Perspective
- Tianbiao Zhu, Peking University, “Will to develop”: The Key to the Survival of Developmental States
- Marc Lanteigne, Victoria University of Wellington, Chinese Developmentalism: Beyond the Japanese Model
- Discussant: Ken Jackson, University of Auckland
Duration: 1:26:23
Summary
Bai Gao's paper titled Classical versus Neo-liberal: Chinese and Japanese Developmentalism in a Comparative Perspective was presented in his absence. The paper argues Japanese and Chinese developmentalism differ fundamentally due to the approach of the state to the market. This approach is derived from the different historical conditions of development (stage of globalization) and China's historical tradition of openness in the period prior to the 1930s.
Tianbiao Zhu of Peking University questioned whether we can see a rise and fall of the developmental state by stripping back the analytical concept to the 'will to develop'. By using the work of Evans (1995) on embedded autonomy, Zhu argued the key feature of the developmental state, and the way to integrate individualistic rational-choice arguments and more macro studies, is to identify the developmental state as one where rational actors have a consistent commitment to development thus creating conditions for bureaucrats and politicians to form a unitary actor.
Marc Lanteigne of Victoria explored Chinese developmentalism through a comparative study of Japan and China's adaptation to globalization. Careful analysis of China's domestic reforms and the adjustments China has made through entrance into the WTO, APEC and through FTA promotion showed significant differences to the conventional Japanese developmental model.
Panel 5: Rural and Urban Development
Chair: Gary Hawke, Victoria University of Wellington
- Katsuji Nagakane, Aoyama Gakuin University, The Turning-point and Rural-urban Divide in China: Compared with Japan in the 1960s
- Rob Scollay and Hugh Whittaker, University of Auckland, Dualist Models of Economic Development: the Role of Agriculture
- Jason Young, Victoria University of Wellington, The Forgotten Sector: Strategies for Growth in Rural China and Japan
- Discussant: Xiaoming Huang, Victoria University of Wellington
Duration: 1:21:39
Summary
Katsuji Nakagane of Aoyama Gakuin University contrasted how the rural urban divide in Japan disappeared through urbanization and wage increases, with China's current rural urban development. Nakagane identifies the paradox of wage increases with ongoing surplus labour and contributes to the debate of whether China has or is approaching the Lewis Transition (see Cai Fang and Du Yang). By showing the age-structure of peasants, the interegional differences and increases in agricultural output, Nakagane argues China is yet to reach the turning point. Furthermore, the gap between Chinese peasants and urban residents is still far greater on a number of development indicators (Engels coefficient, household appliances etc) than it was in Japan in the 1960s as the Lewis Turning Point was reached. Nakagane concludes the lack of political organisation in rural areas and a number of urban-biased policies are impeding the process in China.
Rob Scollay and Hugh Whittaker of Auckland University presented an in-depth empirical study of the agricultural challenges present in a variety of East Asian countries under the rubric of compressed development. These challenges differ to late developing economies such as Japan or the early developers in that there are no longer linear development stages. Rather they are all rolled into one.
Jason Young of Victoria presented the final paper of the Wellington leg. Young put forth a variety of studies that identify the role agriculture and the rural sector play in economic development and used these insights to compare development in Japan and China. Young found that rural growth is crucial to the overall growth process, that there is interdependency between these sectors and that institutions should be designed to support linkages between rural and urban areas. Whilst concurrent growth was present in Japan's development stage, even with the maintenance of family based small plot farming, in China's case rural urban dualism has prevented concurrent and interlinked growth. This was illustrated through exploration of the institutional dualism of the residency and land tenure systems.