Deng Meets Mao: Contradictions of China’s Uneven Development
Deng Meets Mao: Contradictions of China’s Uneven Development

Author(s): Marko Radovanović
Subject(s): National Economy, Human Resources in Economy, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: AMO – Asociace pro mezinárodní otázky
Keywords: China; migrant workers; household registration; economic development; global competitiveness; labor protests; manufacturing sector; value-added industries; Twelfth Five-Year Plan; rural-urban migration;
Summary/Abstract: What can be said of China’s migrant workers and their role? Are the contradictions created by different development policies too complex to resolve smoothly and gradually? I have tried to map the genesis of an important part of China’s economic success, namely, its migrant workforce. Some 150 million people are nowadays discriminated by the system of household registration and remain trapped between the countryside and the city. At the same time, these circumstances enable China to increase its global competitiveness and, possibly, to cut the branch it is sitting on. An increasing number of protests in the recent times and higher bargaining power of workers could cause major shifts in the Chinese manufacturing. Companies could move to other countries or, perhaps, use the newly built infrastructure to move inlands. Another option for China is to shift up the chain of value into more value-added sectors. It seems that the Chinese government is aware of these problems and it addresses them in its Twelfth Five-Year Plan. Nevertheless, the question of whether the effects of Mao-Deng contradictions could be resolved in time remains. It can certainly be said, though, that China is at the crossroads.

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