First published in 1999, this volume assessed the economic situation of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, China, including its trade connections with Hong Kong and foreign investments in the area. Designated as one of four Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as part of China’s domestic economic reform in 1979, Weiping Wu examines Shenzhen’s economic situation in the context of Hong Kong’s transition just two years prior to publication in 1997. Wu explores the developments in Shenzhen in local policy, labor costs, export performance, domestic linkages and complementarity with Hong Kong as a result of Hong Kong’s closer connection with the Shenzhen trade area. Shenzhen’s suitability can then be assessed in its role as an SEZ to experiment with and digest western technology and management techniques for inland China and as a buffer between China and the wider world.

Contributed articles.

This volume analyses the historical, economic, political, geographical, legal, planning, and management aspects of the zones, and discusses their original motivations, current problems, and future prospects.

This book examines China's economic development since 1949, with special emphasis on the economic transition of the past two decades and the role of special economic zones in this gradually evolving process. Various issues concerning the formation of the zones are explored. The performance of the zones and their impacts on the Chinese economy and the transitional path are assessed in aspects such as economic growth, structural changes, investment financing, employment and wages, technology transfers and learning, productivity gains, standards of living, trade expansion and the changing pattern of foreign investment. The implications of the special economic zones as a policy instrument to facilitate the process of economic transition and development, as well as the relevant policy issues, are examined.

The book provides insights into the development of special economic zones, which are an important factor in the political and economic reforms in China. It discusses a number of topics, including the history and the modernization of special economic zones in China, the contributions of special economic zones to China’s economic success and cultural change, as well as the new mission of special economic zones in the current economic-social context. Applying institutional economics and growth poles theory, it discusses the mechanism of China’s path driven by special economic zone practices. The book is a valuable resource for researchers interested in special economic zones, political and institutional reforms and economic transformation during China’s modernization.

Economic and Social Development in South China brings together research by a pioneering team of academic researchers and includes statistical data on the Pearl River Delta as well as analysis of the metropolitan development in Guangzhou municipal city, civil service reform and social policy in Shenzhen, Guangzhou's municipal leadership and the basic level elections in the region since 1979. Other issues discussed include foreign outward direct investment from Guangdong, the creation of effective environmental law, foreign investment in Guangdong and the emergence of private education in the Pearl River Delta. Southern China's creative approaches to the difficulties and problems encountered since reforms began in the 1970s is rigorously analysed and explored by scholars with exceptional access to local sources and data. Economic and Social Development in South China shows how the use - encouraged by the authorities - of competing models of economic development will influence and shape the future of the country as a whole.