This study reviews the context of and prospects for China's only Special Economic Zone (SEZs) that covers an entire province. When Hainan became a province in 1988, the central government wanted to make it a special zone that would go far beyond even the other (SEZs in system reform. It was to have a small government and large society, implying very little state-operated enterprise and minimal government. Despite its essential backwardness, pockets of absolute poverty, inadequate infrastructure and other difficulties, Hainan has made progress in economic development, attracting investment from both the mainland and overseas. Its economy, previously dominated by state-owned rubber and iron ore industries, has diversified through substantial growth in services and small-scale enterprise, including export-oriented joint ventures. However, the pace of reform and investment slowed during the national austerity program from early 1989 to late 1991, calling into question the ambitiousness of some of Hainan's plans to lead the way in reform experiments in agriculture, industry and human resource development. Recently, though, the reform agenda seems to have regained momentum, as Hainan deals in greater depth with the trade, investment and fiscal modernization that could propel it into prosperity. This study also suggests ways in which the province's reform agenda might be accelerated as the next key steps are identified and opportunities seized by both Beijing and Haikou.

This study reviews the context of and prospects for China's only Special Economic Zone (SEZs) that covers an entire province. When Hainan became a province in 1988, the central government wanted to make it a special zone that would go far beyond even the other (SEZs in system reform. It was to have a small government and large society, implying very little state-operated enterprise and minimal government. Despite its essential backwardness, pockets of absolute poverty, inadequate infrastructure and other difficulties, Hainan has made progress in economic development, attracting investment from both the mainland and overseas. Its economy, previously dominated by state-owned rubber and iron ore industries, has diversified through substantial growth in services and small-scale enterprise, including export-oriented joint ventures. However, the pace of reform and investment slowed during the national austerity program from early 1989 to late 1991, calling into question the ambitiousness of some of Hainan's plans to lead the way in reform experiments in agriculture, industry and human resource development. Recently, though, the reform agenda seems to have regained momentum, as Hainan deals in greater depth with the trade, investment and fiscal modernization that could propel it into prosperity. This study also suggests ways in which the province's reform agenda might be accelerated as the next key steps are identified and opportunities seized by both Beijing and Haikou.

"Using detailed and empirically grounded analysis, examines the changing relationship between the Chinese state and the society it governs, how governance choices made affect the country and the rest of the world, and how local Chinese authorities have responded to the challenges they face in coping with China's rapid transformation"--Provided by publisher.

This book examines the complex relationship between the state, society and business in China, focusing on the experience of the island province of Hainan. It provides detailed evidence of how relations between party cadres, state bureaucrats, businesses, foreign investors and civil society play out in practice in China today.

China is a far larger and more diverse country than many people in the West realise. The provinces that make up the country are considerable social, economic and political systems in their own right. They are comparable in size and complexity to European states. China's Provinces in Reform is concerned with the impact of economic reform and social and politial change within the provinces at the immediate sub-central level of the People's Republic of China. One of the main aims of this book is to question over-generalizations about China's development in the reform era. However, the provincial analysis of social and political change in China also has the potential to reveal even more in a comparative perspective. This is the first volume of a series and covers Guangxi, Hainan, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai, Sichuan and Zhejiang. It is part of a project conducted by the Institute for International Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, that will provide the most thorough and up to date analysis of China's provinces yet published.

Based on a treasure trove of information collected through fieldwork interviews and painstaking documentary research through the Chinese and Western language presses, this book analyzes one of the most important reforms implemented in China over the past decade – the rural tax and fee reform, also known as the "Third Revolution in the Countryside". The aim of the tax was to improve social stability in rural China, which has become increasingly shaken by peasant protests, many of them large-scale and violent. By examining the gap between the intentions of the reform and the eventual outcomes, Göbel provides new insights into the nature of intergovernmental relations in China and highlights the ways in which the relationship between the state and the rural populace has fundamentally changed forever. The Politics of Rural Reform in China will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese politics, governance and development studies.

This book examines the complex relationship between the state, society and business in China, focusing on the experience of the island province of Hainan. This island, for many years a provincial backwater, was given provincial rank in 1988 and became the testing ground for experiments of an economic, political, and social nature that have received great attention from Beijing, in particular the "small government, big society" project. This book provides a full account of this transition, showing how Hainan casts important light on a number of highly topical issues in contemporary China studies: central-local relations, institutional reform, state-society relations, and economic development strategies. It provides detailed evidence of how relations between party cadres, state bureaucrats, businesses, foreign investors and civil society play out in practice in China today. It argues that despite the liberalization of recent years, especially in the economic sphere, the party state remains the most powerful actor in Chinese society, and that path-breaking reform experiments such as in Hainan remain highly vulnerable due to the central government’s hesitation to commit the resources and unequivocal political support needed for the experiments to be successfully realized.