China 2020 , livre ebook
179
pages
English
Ebooks
2011
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179
pages
English
Ebooks
2011
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
15 janvier 2011
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9780801459238
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
6 Mo
Chinese society is plagued by many problems that have a direct impact on its current and future business and political environment-worker rights, product safety, Internet freedom, and the rule of law. Drawing on knowledge gained through personal interviews, documentary sources, and almost two decades of visits to China, Michael A. Santoro offers a clear-eyed view of the various internal forces-such as regionalism, corruption, and growing inequality-that will determine the direction and pace of economic, social, and political change. Of special interest is Santoro's assessment of the role of multinational corporations in fostering or undermining social and political progress. Santoro offers a fresh and innovative way of thinking about two questions that have preoccupied Western observers for decades. What will be the effect of economic reform and prosperity on political reform? How can companies operate with moral integrity and ethics in China? In China 2020, Santoro unifies these hitherto separate questions and demonstrates that moral integrity (or lack of it) by Western business will have a profound impact on whether economic privatization and growth usher in greater democracy and respect for human rights.China 2020 also offers a novel vision of China's future economic and political development. Santoro rejects the conventional view that China will muddle through the next decade with incremental social and political changes. Instead he argues that China will follow one or two widely divergent potential outcomes. It might continue to progress steadily toward greater prosperity, democracy, and respect for human rights, but it is also highly likely that China will instead fall backward economically and into an ever more authoritarian regime. The next decade will be one of the most important in the history of China, and, owing to China's global impact, the history of the modern world. China 2020 describes various tectonic social and political battles going on within China. The outcomes of these struggles will depend on a number of powerful indigenous forces as well as the decisions and actions of individual Chinese citizens. Santoro strongly believes that Western businesses can-and should-influence these developments.
Voir
Publié par
Date de parution
15 janvier 2011
EAN13
9780801459238
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
6 Mo
China2020
China2020
How Western Business Can—and Should—Influence Social and Political Change in the Coming Decade
Michael A. Santoro
Cornell University Press Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2009 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2009 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Santoro, Michael A. China 2020 : how western business can and should inuence social and political change in the coming decade / Michael A. Santoro. pc.m. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-4695-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. ChinaForeigneconomicrelations. 2. ChinaCommercial policy. 3. International business enterprisesChina. 4. Investments, ForeignChina. 5. Social responsibility of businessChina. 6. Business ethicsChina. 7. Social changeChina21st century. 8. Human rightsChina. 9. ChinaSocial conditions21st century. 10. ChinaPolitics and government21st century. I. Title.
HF1604.S262009 322'.30951dc22
200850888
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood bers. For further information, visit our website at www. cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Clotphrinting
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Preface vii Acknowledgments xi
Contents
1. Beyond the Shadow of Tiananmen: The Role of Foreign Business in Chinas Uncertain Path to Democracy and Human Rights
2. The Clipboard, the Megaphone, and Socialist Characteristics: Pragmatic and Ideological Approaches to Solving Chinas Sweatshop Problem
3. Drug Safety Races to the Bottom: The Need for Safe Trade in Drugs and Other Products Manufactured in China
4. China 2.0: Illusion and Promise behind the Great Firewall
5. Soft Seat on the Long March: Foreign Business and the Rule of Law in China
6. Conclusion: The Two Chinas of 2020
Notes 143 Index 155
1
20
47 71
101 129
Preface
Almost a decade has passed since I wrote another bookProfits and Principles: Global Capitalism and Human Rights in China(Cornell 2000)on pretty much the same subject for the same publisher. So the reader natu-rally might wonder why I decided to write a second book and whether I have changed my mind about anything in the intervening years. Profits and Principlescame out when the United States was debating whether to admit China into the World Trade Organization (WTO). I had the privilege of testifying before the Finance Committee of the United States Senate on the human rights implications of Chinas entry into the WTO. Drawing on research inProfits and Principles,I argued that multinational corporations, foreign investment, and economic privatiza-tion were helping to move China toward greater democracy and human rights. Based at least in part on the premise that there was a connection between economic openness and political change, the United States ap-proved Chinas WTO membership. This result irked many human rights
v i i i P r e f a c e
activists, academics, politicians, and pundits who believed that using trade sanctions to punish China was the best way to promote human rights. I began this book with the goal of testing whether evidence from the past decade supported the argument inProfits and Principlesthat economic openness was moving China toward greater democracy and human rights. Although the evidence did indeed point to signicant political progress, the ultimate outcome remains far from certain. As my research progressed, I became more interested in understanding the forces that would help to shape social and political change in the next decade. The potential outcomes for China in the next decade are widely di-vergent. It might continue to progress steadily toward greater democracy and respect for human rights. But it might as likely fall backward into an ever more authoritarian regime. Given that China is poised to move in one of two such polar opposite directions, it is no overstatement to sug-gest that the next decade will be one of the most important in the history of China, and, owing to Chinas global impact, the history of the modern world. This book describes various tectonic social and political struggles going on within China. As we shall see, the outcomes of these battles will depend on a number of powerful indigenous forces as well as the decisions and actions of individual Chinese citizens. The current global nancial crisiswhich has affected China far more signicantly than most West-erners realizehas served to intensify and raise the stakes of these broad social and political tensions. The principal argument of this book is that Westerners canand shouldinuence these developments. This book is much more pointed in its criticism of Western business than is my earlier book. The fair share standard of corporate moral responsibility for human rights is the same one enunciated inProfits and Principles.I continue to believe that Western business is helping to unleash powerful forces of change in China. But when we look at the behavior of Western rms, it is clear that they are not doing their fair share and that there is much more they can and should do. Foreign companies have settled into a complacent partnership with the Chinese government. This is not morally acceptable. Nor is it in the long-term interest of business. My hope is that this book will shake up this complacency by shining a light on the faulty moral and strategic premises on which it rests. This book also has a greater appreciation for the interdependence of what had been treated as two distinct kinds of questions in the rst book
P r e f a c e i x
and also in two hithertofore separate branches of scholarly debate. What will be the effect of economic reform and prosperity on political reform? How can companies operate with moral integrity and ethics in China? The book unies those two elds of inquiry by demonstrating that the ethical behav-ior of multinational corporations will be a decisive factor in determining whether economic reform will lead to political reform. Our collective understanding about what is going on within China has increased considerably sinceProfits and Principleswas published. Many good books, scholarly and popular, have been written. Western press coverage of events within China is much more extensive. There are regular exchanges of tourists, students, and government ofcials. However, Chinas emergence as a global economic power has raised the stakes of mutual understanding exponentially. The gap between what we understand and what we need to understand has grown wider. The global nancial meltdown has, moreover, changed the rules for Chinas future prosperity and for Western business interests in China. This book attempts to elucidate what forces will shape China and how Western business can inuence that future. Western business executives hopefully will nd both a moral and a practical guide for invest-ing and doing business in China. It should also be of interest to politicians, policymakers, union leaders, and human rights activists who want to under-stand the potential extent and limits of Western inuence on democracy and human rights. I hope, in particular, thatChina 2020will be useful to the new Obama administration as it struggles with the decades-long foreign policy puzzle of how to effectively and morally reconcile human rights with the other weighty concerns that complicate Americas relationship with China. One caveat I offered in my earlier book is worth reiterating. The meth-odology is interdisciplinary and practical. As a result, it risks offending purists in a number of elds, including Sinologists, moral philosophers, legal scholars, economists, political scientists, sociologists, and business journalists, to name the rst that come to mind. Others who might re-gard this work as an intellectual impertinence include foreign affairs spe-cialists, management scholars, and experts on cross-cultural interactions. I mean no offense or scholarly arrogance by blundering into these realms. The subject is very complex, and therefore I was required to draw from a wide array of elds. I am in some measure beholden to all these disci-plines. It is impossible to do good interdisciplinary work unless one can rely on high quality disciplinary work.
