Course outline: click here.
Carsten's office hour: Wednesday 11am-12noon, Room 3382.
 

Assignment 12 (due 16 May at beginning of class)

1. Briefly recount the story (include location and time).
2. Who owns the factory?
3. How does the county government benefit from the factory?
4. Since the factory was established, what health issues do the villagers complain about?
5. Did the village receive any outside help in pursuing their case against the factory?
6. How did the county government help—or not help?
7. What is the issue about the factory not emitting pollutants?
8. Why is the article not reporting final results of the court case?
 

Assignment 11 (due 9 May at beginning of class)

Enjoy first assignment text (about Shenzhen rural land) on your own, if you like. [Optional]

A.  Enjoy the first assignment text (about Shenzhen rural land) on your own, if you like. [Optional]

B.    (Jiangping:) three problems of rural land regulations
1. What are the three types of rural land?
2. Does rural collective land come with the “construction use right?” (And: what does this term mean?)
3. What are the rules on selling rural contracted land?
4. Can rural houses be sold? Explain.

C. Social security of 40mio farmers without land
1. What is the problem of the farmer Li Xinchun?
2. How many farmers like Li Xinchun are there in China today? What does the latest regulation on this issue say?
3. How many farmers are expected to lose their land every year over the next five years?
4. What is the currently projected annual supply and demand of labor in China?
5. What is the meaning of sanwunong ??? (“three without agriculture”)?
6. How many cases of petitioning by farmers are there every year?
7. In how far is the situation of farmers losing their land different in Eastern China vs. West/Central China?
8. Who is ultimately responsible for providing some form of support for farmers who have lost their land? Is this a realistic arrangement?
 

Assignment 10 (due 2 May at beginning of class)

A.    Text on election of female village official (Caijing #108/2004)
1.  There are a lot of details in this article. Summarize with one term (few words) or one sentence the content of each paragraph, or of a few paragraphs that go together. You can make a flow chart if that helps. Be prepared to tell the story in class.
2.  Assuming the facts in this story are correct (which they probably are), and assuming the story reports *all* relevant/ important facts, draw conclusions/ implications/ generalizations of how some things work in China's countryside (at the county/ township/ village level).

B. Raid on Dingzhou’s farmers
1. The article reports on what it calls a “battle.” What is the battle about?
2. How much compensation does the village Party committee member and village accountant claim the village was promised? How much does s/he claim the village has received? How much does the Dingzhou government’s regulation (“explanation”) say the village received? How much do villagers say they received? Why these differences (any idea)?
3. In response to the battle, what did higher-level officials (who?) do?
4. Where was the event reported?

C.  Xinjingbao newspaper report
1. This newspaper in June 2005 was the first newspaper to reveal/report what?
2. What happened to the editor and two deputy-editors in December 2005?
3. What does the journalist An Ti say on his/her website that “we [Chinese citizens] are not…”?
 

Assignment 9 (due 25 April at beginning of class)
Heilongjiang sale of official positions

As you go through the text and these questions below, ask yourself what the implications are: what does it mean, for example, nationwide, or for China’s political system, or for China’s economic future?
1. How many officials have taken part in the sale/ purchase of official positions? At what levels are these positions?
2. The provincial officials affected had what positions? List.
3. The article offers a classification of corruption into 3 categories. What are these?
4. What is, roughly, the average price for an official position at each of the three different levels in Table 1 (p. 28)?
5. What were the positions of Han Guizhi, Zhao Hongyan, and Ma De themselves when they sold official positions?
6. In order for a *market price* for official positions to develop, what is needed?
7. What are the three conditions the article identifies for the sale/ purchase of official positions to occur?
8. What is the rate of return (profit rate) on Li Gang’s investment (buying the position of county head and later of county Party secretary)? (Table 2)
9. In how far does the purchase of a particular position require/ lead to “upstream” and “downstream” corruption?
10. How was the sale/ purchase of official positions in Heilongjiang discovered?
11. What is the disadvantage of paying for official positions in cash? What other forms of payment are popular?
12. In how far does the sale/ purchase of official positions involve economies of scale, economies of scope, and a version of a futures market?
13. Describe/ explain the “vicious circle of poverty and corruption.”
14. When Ma De was in control of Suihua Municipality from 1995 to 2002, what happened to average annual per capital rural income in this municipality?
15. According to the article, why can honest cadres not exist in the system in effect in Heilongjiang? (p. 35 left column)
16. Page 36 has a table reporting “personnel changes” in Heilongjiang Provinces since 2002. What is the typical outcome of a personnel change?
17. Who handled the investigations into the sale/ purchase of official positions in Heilongjiang? (may not be obvious in text -> guess)
 

Assignment 8 (due 18 April at beginning of class)

I.    Text on the election "earthquake" in Fushun. (Caijing #77-78/2003)
1. The article describes two elections. What are the elections, and what are the election results? Why is it worth writing an article about? Be prepared to provide a summary overview over the article in class (by answering these questions).
2. What are the 3 ways in which People's Congress members and People's Congress Standing Committee members (or deputy mayors) can be nominated for election/ elected. Which is the usual way?
3. What methods does the Chinese Communist Party use to ensure that the people it likes are "elected?"
4. Who supervised the "elections?" (p. 32 left-middle)
5. What was the previous position of the new People's Congress chair? (p. 32 right-bottom)
6. When did the nomination begin? Who began it? How?
7. When the provincial Chinese Communist Party Organization Department says that it "tests the will of the people," who does it in fact "test" (survey)? (I.e., in this instance, what does the Chinese Communist Party mean by "people?")
8. What does the Chinese Communist Party Organization Department do in response to the findings of the "test?" (p. 34 middle-bottom)
9. How is Guo Zhangqing's (failed candidate for deputy mayor) job search going?

II.    Text on independence of China's judiciary (Hong Kong Economic Journal/ Xinbao 7 Oct. 2000)
In order to implement the independence of the judiciary in China, in what respect does the system need more (safety) guarantees? In other words, in what respects is China's judiciary not independent, and what can/ should be done about it?

The course outline lists a third assignment reading that you don't have. Therefore ignore the third assignment reading.
 

Assignment 7 (due 11 April at beginning of class)

David Zweig on Undemocratic Capitalism
1.  Why, according to the traditional view, should rapid economic growth lead to political liberalization?
2.  What is necessary for economic growth to produce political liberalization?
3.  Summarize the three reasons why economic growth may not lead to political liberalization in China.
4. What do you think?

Li Shaomin’s “We Need More Oxen, Not Monkeys,” is yours to enjoy on your own. Where do you fit in…
 

Assignment 6 (due 28 March at beginning of class)

A. 11th Five-Year Plan
1.    Who issued this document and what is it about?
2.    Who is this document addressed to?
3.    What is the guiding thought?
4.    What is the division of labor? (first section)
5.    List the binding constraints (binding norms).
6.    Which norms are to be broken down according to province? By who? What are the key measures to check their implementation?
7.    Very briefly, what are the second through sixth section about, and who appears mostly in charge of the issues in these sections?
8.    When was this document issued and who is to respond with what by when?
9.    What's to happen half-way through the Five-Year Plan?

B. HK Economic Journal article on the 6th CCPCC Plenum
1.    What is the full title of the decision passed by the 6th Plenum of the 16th CCPCC?
2.    Has the decision been published?
3.    How many persons participated in this Plenum?
4.    What did the participants unanimously agree on as guiding principles (and for who?), according to a closing announcement?
5.    What are the first three of the tasks identified in the closing announcement?
 

Assignment 5 (due 21 March at beginning of class)

1.    According to the title, what is the plan about?
2.    Who prepared and who decided on this plan?
3.    What are the eight numerical (singular or sets of) objectives for the year 2006? (See para 3-10 of second section. p.12)
4.    Briefly summarize what section 2.3.1 is about.
5.    Briefly summarize what sections 2.3.2-10 are about (one word or phrase for each).
 

Assignment 4 (due 14 March at beginning of class)

A. Bureaucrat-coal collusion
1. Where has this article been published?
2. What circular does the article refer to, and what is the key requirement of the circular?
3. What was discovered after the 7 August coal mine accident in Guangdong's Xingning City?
4. Who made a report after the accident?
5. What is the result of the key requirement of the circular by the deadline of 22 September?
6. How do you think the requirement (a) can be fulfilled and (b) is fulfilled in practice?
7. What are the two forms of "bureaucrat-coal collusion?"
8. How many mining licenses (rights) were established (sold) in 2003, and how were they sold?

optional --- B. 2005 Coal Order Work --- optional
1. Who issued the circular?
2. What is the circular about?
3. Who is to be a member of the “coal ordering leadership coordination small group?”
4. Do you think this “small group” is a government or a private/ market institution?
5. Why create such a “small group?” Do you think the coal trade is a market-based trade?

C. 2005 Price Work
1. Who issued the circular?
2. Who is the circular addressed to?
3. What is the one overall objective of the circular?
4. What is the overall requirement?
5. What is to happen in the case of abnormal price movements?
6. The prices of what kinds of goods are covered in subsections 2(5) through 2(12)?
As far as you can tell, who determines these prices?
Who determines the prices of these goods in Hong Kong?
7. Subsection 2(1) refers to a regulation; the regulation was issued by who?
8. According to subsection 3(15), something is to be abolished. What is it?
--- Do you know the background? Why do these things exist in the first place?
9. What is the “seasonality” innovation in subsection 3(17)?
10. What kind of price supervision is proposed in subsection 3(22)?
 

Assignment 3 (due 28 Feb. at beginning of class)

A.    On the list of "Events 1976-2006" (class materials, as pointed out in class), mark in five different colors
(i) all Pleni of the CCPCC (like Third Plenum of the Xth CCPCC)
(ii) everything that has to do with "foreign" or "trade"
(iii) everything that has to do with finance
(iv) everything that has to do with enterprises
(v) everything that has to do with agriculture
Do you notice what the CCPCC Pleni are about? Do you notice any pattern in what's happening over time?
Nothing to write down. Just do it.

The rest of this assignment: don't spend too much time on it. Try to answer all questions (briefly), but if you can't answer a question, skip it.
--- We will not have an assignment like this again.

A.    Textbook on planned economy
This text makes four different arguments. For each argument, answer the following questions:
1.    According to this text, what are the advantages of central planning?
2.    What proof is offered?
3.    Do you agree with the argument? Yes/No -- why?
If this is difficult, try to do the first two arguments. It's OK to skip the 3rd and 4th, if need be.

B.    People's Bank of China article
You are free not to read the whole article but just to pick the answers to the questions. You are free to not spend more than 15 min. on this article.
1.    Who is the author of this article? What is his position?
2.    What does the first paragraph say?
3.    a. What is the "fundamental objective" (genben mudi) of the "new tide of rising up, and implementing the important ideology of the 'Three Represents'?" (p. 4, left column towards bottom)
       b. What does the article say how this is to be achieved?
4. According to the author, how do the 'Three Represents' guide macroeconomic work in finance, and how do they lead to deep thinking about problems in financial reform and development? (p. 5 left column last two rows, right column top) You only need to show this for the first example given.
 

Assignment 2 (due 14 Feb. at beginning of class)

Please hand in a photocopy; keep your original answers.

A.  Suggestions on how to implement the 2006 work against unhealthy tendencies
1. Where was this suggestion published? What kind of publication is this?
2. Who issued this circular?
3. Who does the circular address?
4. Who approved the circular?
5. This circular answers to the requests of who?
6. In the introduction to the first section (“major tasks”), what theory/ thought does the circular refer to. (Feel free to also interpret.)
7. Try to list or summarize the major tasks in your own words, very briefly.
8. How would the issues you listed in answering the previous question be resolved in Hong Kong? How are they in China (section 2, keep very short)?

B. Consolidation and standardization of the order of the market economy, 2006
1. Who issued the circular?
2. Who is the circular addressed to?
3. What are the first four issues addressed in the first four (overall) sections?
4. According to paragraph 18, how is “market supervision” to be improved?
5. What is the role of news reporting and propaganda (paragraph 19)?
6. What is the last (20th) paragraph about?