Assignment questions
Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due
the following Monday at 10:00.
If you choose to hand in your answer by e-mail,
make sure the (i) assignment number, (ii) your name as well as (iii) your
student ID are included in the SUBJECT line, and send your e-mail to sosc260@ust.hk
Change in classroom: starting Monday, 16 September 2002: 3412
For twelth assignment, due 25 November, see
below.
Essay Questions
Choose one question and write a (maximum) 1000-word answer (essay).
Deadline: 2 December 2002, 10am.
A. Geography and Economy
How is China's geographic location and size related to China's economic
development?
B. Jiang Zemin speech at 16th Party Congress, 8 November 2002, Section
4.4 (on basic economic system and administration of state assets; handed
out in class, also in envelope on door of office 3382)
Briefly summarize the issues mentioned in section 4.4 (maximum 300
words), then give background knowledge or elaborate further on one or more
of the issues listed in section 4.4. (For example, background knowledge
could be as to why this issue is currently important in China, or an explanation
of the current state on the particular issue.)
Twelth assignment (due Monday, 25 November 2002, 10:00)
Do either Part I or Part II
Part I
A. On the two World Trade Organization (WTO) newspaper articles
Question: What are some of the issues (advantages and disadvantages)
for China of joining WTO?
---You may also get much more detailed and updated information at
http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/trade_relations/topicalissues/chinaccesswto.html
It’s OK to go over this quickly, read on the web, and just jot down
a few key points. The prime objective would then be that
you spend 20-30 minutes reading around on the web and get an idea of
what’s happening regarding WTO. The next set of
questions below requires you to go to this website. You can find even
more (too many?) details at http://www.tdctrade.com
B. Impact of China’s accession to the WTO on Hong Kong
(See http://www.tid.gov.hk/english/trade_relations/topicalissues/chinaccesswto.html)
1. What is the overall impact on Hong Kong? (Choose 3 items.)
2. List three opportunities for HKG.
3. What are the challenges for HKG? (Choose three items.)
Part II
C. Xi’an circular of 9 March 2001 on use of foreign funds
The Xi’an government is issuing targets on attracting foreign investment
and on actual implementation of foreign investment.
1. Who is supposed to achieve these targets? (To who are the targets
distributed?) Classify the recipients of the targets into
two or three groups.
2. How does the government try to achieve these targets? (2 methods)
D. State Council decision of 11 February 2002 on attracting foreign
investment
1. What 3 types of foreign enterprises are covered by this regulation?
2. What are the 2 lists of projects mentioned in this regulation, and
who decided on these two lists?
3. Projects involving foreign investment fall into 4 permission
categories. What are these? Give one concrete example for each category.
Eleventh assignment (due Wednesday, 20 November 2002, 10:00)
Do A.
Also do either B or C
A. Article on losses of grain enterprises in Jilin
and Hubei
1. Who issued the circular and where is it published?
2. What is the topic of the circular?
3. Who did the inspection?
4. How big are the total losses in the two provinces?
5. What is the meaning of guazhang ("hanging on the account") ?
6. Which bank lends money for agricultural procurement?
7. Is the retail price of grain (xiaoshou jiage) supposed to be below
or above the procurement price (shougou jiage)?
8. What is the meaning of tanpai?
9. Looking at Jilin Province, what happened in 1993?
10. Looking at Jilin Province, what share of bank loans was not used
for grain and oilseed procurement? What was the money
used for?
11. What are some of the other problems of the state grain procurement
system in Jilin Province?
(No need to read the section on Hubei.)
B. State Council circular of 2 February 2000 on reduction in the range
of
grains to which the protection price applies
1. To which regions and which products will the protection price no
longer apply beginning with the grain marketization season
of 2000?
2. Once the protection price has been given up, who can buy these grains?
(Section 2)
3. What is the industrial and commercial administration to do about
the market trade between the regions which have given up
these protection prices and the regions which haven’t?
4. May private traders enter the rice trade?
C. Shaanxi Province government circular of 5 June 2000 on the year 2000
agricultural procurement
1. What document is this circular referring to in its first main paragraph?
2. Shaanxi Province wishes to procure 73.2b kg of grain in 2000. From
whom?
3. There is an indicative (procurement) plan for what?
4. What’s the procurement price for 50 kg of “mixed” wheat? How does
this price compare to the world market price of
wheat? (The answer to the latter question is not in the text, find
it in the newspaper if you have time.)
5. What’s the difference between the wheat protection price and the
wheat (compulsory) procurement price? (+ meaning of
these words?)
6. How is the procurement price of all grains besides “wheat
etc.” to be determined?
7. What are the ‘state grain procurement and sales enterprises’ NOT
allowed to do? (Section 3)
Skip the Shaanxi Province government circular on tax/fee reform of 2002.
Tenth assignment (due Monday, 11 November 2002, 10:00)
A. Xinbao newspaper article on the First Five-Year Plan (1st FYP)
1. According to the author, what "percentage" of the 1st FYP was based
on planning practice in the Soviet Union?
2. Before the Chinese Communist Party established the new government
of China, how did it obtain funds?
3. How were early budgetary and planning problems at least partly resolved?
4. What is the label (name, title) for the period 1949 through 1953?
5. When did the 1st FYP begin? Who designed the plan?
6. In summer 1953 a big budget deficit appeared. What are the reform
measures that the finance minister Bo Yibo proposed
subsequently? How were these measures received by Mao Zedong?
7. Who became finance minister after Bo Yibo? What are the first 3
of the 6 measures the new finance minister proposed?
What's the slogan describing central-provincial budget relations in
the third measures (what does it mean)?
8. Was the 1st FYP successfully implemented in 1953? Why, or why not?
9. What's the title of the document Mao Zedong issued in 1955, and
what was the effect on the countryside and the remaining
private enterprises? What was the final effect on the 1st FYP?
10. Why were salaries adjusted (presumably around 1955)?
11. What was the effect of Mao Zedong's speech/ document "Ten Major
Relationships" in 1956?
12. The author of this article worked in the Finance Ministry (from
1949?). What happened to him/ her in 1957?
13. Do you think economic planning in the mid-1950s helped China to
grow rapidly, and caused personal incomes to rise? Why
or why not?
B. Jinrong yanjiu baogao (Financial research report) on the "Western
Development" policies of the State Council's
Ministries and Commissions
1. List the first three (of the four) State Development and Planning
Commission focal points in the Western Development
strategy.
2. How does the Finance Ministry help in the development of China's
Western region?
3. To judge by the amount of money that is spent by the various ministries
and commissions on the development of the Western
Region, do you think this is a major initiative?
C. State Council General Office on reducing the burden on peasants
1. What are the four major results of the 1999/2000
investigation?
2. How successful was the investigative work in the
various localities?
3. In what respects are central policies still violated
today?
Ninth assignment (due Monday, 4 November 2002, 10:00)
A. State Council regulation of 14 Dec. 1998 on urban health insurance
1. Who participates in the urban health insurance?
2. Which level of government organizes the urban
health insurance?
3. Who pays how much health insurance, into what
type of fund?
4. What type of fund pays what costs?
5. Who administers the funds?
6. Who determines the types of health care services
and medicine to be covered by the health insurance?
7. Do public servants get any special treatment?
B. Article(s) on rural health care
1. Which government department is in charge of rural
health insurance?
2. The city population accounts for what percentage
of the population, and for what percentage of the health services?
3. According to the World Bank, what rank among all
countries in the world does China have when it comes to "fairness of financial
contributions?"
4. Who organized the rural health system in the pre-reform
period?
5. What percentage of villages still had a cooperative
health system in 1985? In 1997?
6. According to the World Bank, what percentage of
China's rural population was paying for medical treatment by themselves
in the late 1980s?
7. Why is this article quoting the World Bank so
often?
8. According to a 1997 survey of 2960 rural households,
what percentage of households did not want to participate in the cooperative
health system?
9. According to the World Bank, what share of the
population is relying on the "county-township-village" health care system?
How does this number compare to the one on the spread of the cooperative
health system in 1997?
10. What are the four stages of rural medical care?
11. What does the State Council plan to do this year
(2002)?
12. Looking at the experience in Feixi county:
a. How many rural (township) clinics
(weishengyuan) are there today? Who runs them?
b. How many village-level health
stations (weishengzhan) are there today? Who runs them?
c. How many village-run village
clinics (zhensuo) are there today, with how many staff?
d. In the experiment where villagers
paid 10RMB per head to join the cooperative health system, what percentage
of people signed up?
13. What do you think is the author's favored solution
to the rural health care problem? Do you agree? (Why, or why not?)
Eighth assignment (due Monday, 28 October 2002, 10:00)
This assignment consists of three parts, part 1, 2, and 3. Each part has two readings.
If your student ID's last digit (last number of the eight numbers)
is a 1 or 3 or 5 or 7, then do part 1.
If your student ID's last digit (last number of the eight numbers)
is a 2 or 4 or 6 or 8, then do part 2.
If your student ID's last digit (last number of the eight numbers)
is a 9 or 0, then do part 3.
Apart from answering the questions to complete the assignment, be prepared
to give a 3 to 5-minute presentation on your
assignment reading (part). In your presentation focus on a very few
"major" points/ issues/ arguments and state each clearly.
Part 1
State Council regulation of 16 July 1997 on establishing pension
system
1. Passage 3: Under usual circumstances, what is the maximum amount
to be paid into pension insurance? Who determines the
exact amount?
2. Under what circumstances can the amount be exceeded?
3. What kinds of pension insurance schemes (accounts) are there?
4. What is the return on the individual/ personal account? Can the
funds be prematurely withdrawn?
5. What is the earliest when pensions can be claimed? How much money
is it?
State Council regulation of 15 Sept. 1998 on pension system
1. What is the topic of this circular?
2. What type of enterprises are covered? Does ownership matter?
3. By when should the establishment of an urban pension system have
been completed?
4. How much money do the various industrial organizations pay into
the pension fund?
5. Do individual laborers contribute to the pension fund?
Part 2
State Council regulation of 22 Jan. 1999: unemployment regulation
1. Who pays unemployment insurance, who enjoys unemployment insurance?
2. Which enterprises are covered by the unemployment regulation?
3. Who organizes unemployment insurance?
4. Who pays how much unemployment insurance?
5. In article 8, what is the task of the provincial government
6. Who is entitled to unemployment insurance payments? Are new university
graduates entitled?
7. If someone is laid off and meets the requirements to receive unemployment
insurance payments, for how long will s/he be
able to receive the payments, assuming s/he has worked for 3 years?
What’s the maximum length?
8. Who determines the amount of unemployment insurance payment per
person? According to what measure?
9. If someone moves from one province to another, what happens to any
eventual unemployment insurance claim?
Xi'an government 26 Jan. 1998 on laid-off workers
1. What is the percentage target for re-employment of originally employees
of the state or state-owned enterprises, who lost
their original job in 1998?
2. Who inspects whether re-employment targets are being met?
3. Give three examples of institutions which receive targets. What
do you think these institutions are supposed to do?
4. Besides re-employment targets, there is a second set (page) of targets?
What are they about?
Part 3
SC 28 Sept. 1999 regulation on basic urban living allowance
1. Who is eligible for the basic urban living allowance?
2. Who pays for the basic urban living allowance?
3. Who administers/ approves the basic urban living allowance scheme?
4. Is the basic urban living allowance paid out in money, or in goods?
5. What do the receivers of the basic urban living allowance do in
exchange?
Skip the text on Shaanxi province
Xi'an Party Committee and gov. on guaranteeing living standard of
xiagang workers (13 July 1998)
1. Passage 2: What are the three targets and the one slogan?
2. Last paragraph of passage 3: Can husband and wife both be dismissed
at the same time?
3. Passage 4.4: How much is the basic living allowance for dismissed
labor?
4. Passage 4.5: Who pays for the basic living allowance?
5. Passage 5.1: What monetary incentives are offered to enterprises
(of all ownership types) to employ dismissed workers?
6. Passage 7.1: Which enterprises must participate in the Xi’an pension,
unemployment and health insurance system as well as
in the housing system reform?
7. Passage 7.1: How are housing matters within a dismissed worker’s
former work unit regulated?
8. Do you think this SOE reform favors employees or enterprises? Carefully
argue your points.
Seventh assignment, (due Monday, 21 October 2002, 10:00)
A. “Guoqi tuokun yanjiu” keti zu. “Guoyou dazhong xing kuisun qiye:
san nien tuokun?” Zhongguo tongji, no. 7 (1999): 35f.
1. How many large and medium-sized industrial state-owned enterprises
(SOEs) were there in 1997? How many were
loss-making in 1997?
2. Of the 500 largest enterprises in the world, how many run losses?
3. According to the authors, how many loss-making large and medium-sized
industrial SOEs would be acceptable for China?
(Why?) Do you agree? How many of the in 1997 loss-making enterprises
then need to be turned around (to make a profit)?
4. Why do you think is the percentage of foreign-invested enterprises
that are running losses almost as large as that of SOEs?
5. The article distinguishes between four groups of loss-making enterprises.
What do you think of the recommendations on how
to reform these enterprises?
6. Of the enterprises which were profitable in 1997, how many were
just barely profitable? Are these numbers credible? What
are the implications?
B. Gregory, Neil, and Stoyan Tenev. “The Financing of Private Enterprise
in China.” Finance & Development (March 2001):
14-17.
1. In the survey of 600 private Chinese enterprises in 1999, what is
the financing pattern for a firm that has been in operation
for 3-5 years (who provides what share of funds)?
2. What share of bank lending in 1999 was to the private sector?
3. What share of the private enterprises considered their lack of access
to (external) finance to be a serious constraint? What
do you think would be the number for Hong Kong? How should we interpret
the Chinese number?
4. What share of the surveyed firms had secured loans in the previous
five years?
5. Compare the share of internal financing in China to that of Poland
and the U.S.
6. List the key bank incentives/ procedures/ problems and how they
impede lending to private enterprises.
7. How can access for private enterprises to external non-bank finance
be facilitated?
8. If you look at all the obstacles for private enterprises to obtain
financing, what do you think is the biggest problem (or the
main, underlying factor that creates all the obstacles listed in the
article)?
C. Newspaper article on SOEs not acting according to commercial principles
1. This article is about one listed company. What
is the name of the comapny, when was it listed, and what did it do that
triggered its share price to fall.
2. What problem did the factory that was sold have?
3. In what respects is the government involved in
enterprises/ business deals?
Sixth assignment (due Monday, 14 October 2002, 10:00)
A. Go to the list of names in the class materials (labeled "The
Main National Leadership of the PRC")
1. Find the position of "state president." What's
the name of the president, and what other positions in the Chinese
Communist Party and in the government does this person have?
2. Do the same for the Vice-President of China.
3. Do the same for the head of the National People's
Congress.
4. Do the same for the head of the Central Military
Commission.
5. Do the same for the State Council Premier.
6. Do the same for the State Countil Vice-Premiers.
7. Do the same for the head of the Supreme People's
Court.
B.
If the last digit of your student ID number is 0,1, 4, or 7, read the
readings labeled "1" and answer
the questions for block 1.
If the last digit of your student ID number is 2, 5, or 8, read the
readings labeled "2" and answer the
questions for block 2.
If the last digit of your student ID number is 3, 6, or 9, read the
readings labeled "3" and answer the
questions for block 3.
This assignment is relatively short. Apart from answering the questions,
please be prepared to give a summary introduction to
your topic (block) in class. In other words, prepare a 2- to 3-minute
speech that covers the main points. You are very
welcome to follow the questions, but you may wish to re-arrange the
questions so that you have a nice, comprehensive story.
Block 1: Special inspectors
-> Text 1.b.
1. Who appoints the special inspectors? For how long? What is the special
inspectors’ rank?
2. What enterprises do they inspect? How many enterprises are there
per inspector?
3. What are the tasks of the special inspectors?
4. How often do they inspect?
5. How can the special inspectors bring about changes in the enterprises?
-> Text 1.a.
Only 1 question: One special inspector office comprises how many people?
Where are they from?
Block 2: Reform of non-public economy and of small state-owned enterprises
(small SOEs)
-> Text 2.a.
1. How many small SOEs are there in X'an Municipality?
2. What are the major 7 ways to reform small SOEs?
3. In the stock-co-operation, managers should hold how many more shares
than the average worker (per person)?
4. What are the incentives to become a stock-co-operation?
5. How is land handled in the process of small SOE reform?
6. How are employees to be handled in the process of small SOE reform?
-> Text 2b (Xi'an government circular on obectives/
tasks in year 2000...)
For the first four questions, take the answer from the annexes/ appendices.
1. What are the four groups of enterprises that are to be reformed?
(Also note who ordered the reform, and who the
enterprises belong to in general.)
2. For each group, list at least 3 types of reform measures.
3. List 5 government departments to which some of the enterprises belong.
4. In the third group of enterprises, contracts are signed. Who signs
them? What is their content?
5. What are sections 4.1 and 4.4 of the main text about.
6. Do you think the reform measures introduced in this circular will
be successful? Explain.
Block 3: State-owned enterprise (SOE) reform in Xi'an Municipality
-> Text 3.a.
1. What is the stock-co-operation system? What are the conditions for
its establishment?
2. What happens to the "administrative fee" paid by the enterprise
to the superordinate (government) departments (to which
the enterprise originally belonged)?
-> Text 3.b.
1. How many shareholding enterprises enterprises are there in Xi'an
Municipality?
2. What is a major objective of turning (small) SOEs into shareholding
enterprises?
-> Text 3.c.
1. What is the name of the leading group and from what institutions
are its members?
2. Where is the leading group's office located?
3. What are the counties and urban districts supposed to do?
-> Text 3.d.
1. The article reflects the experience gained in reforming how many
small SOEs? How many of these have positive net worth,
how many zero or negative net worth?
2. When enterprises with positive net worth are restructured/ reformed,
what happens to their bank loans?
3. When enterprises with negative net worth are restructured/ reformed,
what happens to their bank loans?
Fifth assignment (due Wednesday, 9 October 2002, 10:00) ---- will not be on the first midterm
1. Assignment reading in Chinese by Zhang Ronggang and Liu Shaoxuan
on the liability problems of
state-owned enterprises and their causes.
a. What is the liability-asset ratio in this factory? What are the
implications?
b. What was the problem with the 1986 investment?
c. In what respects did the financial situation deteriorate between
1992 and 1995?
d. What is triangular debt, and how can the problem be resolved?
e. How does the enterprise pay interest?
f. Does the enterprise face competition? Elaborate.
g. What is the meaning of "soft budget constraint?”
h. What are some of the problems of bank-based financing?
2. Assignment reading in Chinese by Fan Hengshan on the reform of small
state-owned enterprises,
progress and problems
a. Looking at industrial state-owned enterprises with independent accounting
system, what
percentage of enterprises is "small,” and what percentage of staff
and workers do they employ?
b. What are four current problems of small SOEs?
c. What are the 12 ways to reform small SOEs?
d. What is the method of reform of small SOEs in Guangdong's Shun De
Municipality?
e. In conclusion, what are the five major problems in future small
SOE reform?
Fourth assignment (due Monday, 30 September 10:00)
1. David Zweig on Undemocratic Capitalism
a. Why, according to the traditional view, should
rapid economic growth lead to political liberalization?
b. What is necessary for economic growth to produce
political liberalization?
c. Summarize the three reasons why economic growth
may not lead to political liberalization in China? (1-3 sentences for
each reason)
2. "Work regulation on the CCP village organization”
a. Who elects the township Party Committee?
b. If a department of the country government or of a government above
the county-level has a unit (let's say factory) at the
township level, then the Party Committee of which tier "leads" this
unit?
c. What are the responsibilities of the township Party Committee? (summarize
in your words, don't just copy all)
d. What should the village-level cadres do/ how should they behave?
(Article 16+17; sum up Art. 17 in one or two words)
e. Who is responsible for explaining/ interpreting this regulation?
3. Li Shaomin (former City Univ. professor)
Why does China/ Hong Kong have too many monkeys, and not enough oxen?
[No need to answer this question in your e-mail, just read the text.]
4. China's judicial system (1-page newspaper article)
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?
5. Corruption (1-page newspaper article)
a. Who is (was) involved in the Dahua smuggling case?
List the people by their position (not necessarily names).
b. State Councillor Wu Yi apparently requested that
this smuggling case be resolved completely (independent of who will be
implicated). What does the author of this article think of this suggestion?
Is it likely to be implemented? Why or why not?
c. According to He Qinglian, in how far have the
characteristics of corruption changed since 1995?
6. On input/output tables: DO NOT
HAND IN YOUR ANSWERS
This assignment is a bit long. It is nevertheless
excellent practice to do this last exercise in order to make sure you understand
input/ output tables and their role in central
planning. A model solution will be handed out in class.
The
data below combines the data from Greenwald into two sectors (agriculture
+ industry =
A, trade and transportation + services = B)
"Last year's data"
A B
Y
X
A 234 79 487 800
B 68 38 594 700
Labor 326 370
Capital 150 176
Ind. taxes 22 37
a. Calculate all the input coefficients
(for first two columns).
b. The central planner decides
that for NEXT year we want Y in sector A to be 520, and Y in
sector B to be 650. For the next year:
-> Calculate the gross output
value in the two sectors (follow the steps used in class).
-> Calculate all intermediate
sales and all primary inputs (labor, capital, indirect taxes).
Third assignment (due Monday, 23 September 10:00)
A. On the annual (2001/2002) plan.
Note: you don't need to read the whole plan; just read the passages
you need in order to answer the
questions. Take a look at the section/ sub-section titles of the passages
you don't read.
1. According to the title, what does the plan talk
about?
2. Who decided on this plan?
3. What are the numerical objectives for the next
year (2002)? (There is a short list in the second section; that's all you
need.)
4. Take a look at tasks (work) 1, 3, and 5 (countryside/
agriculture, employment, systemic reforms). Read through the three
items, then summarize each in about three sentences.
B. Browse through the Shaanxi Province government circular on the key
work of the provincial economic
and trade commission. Get a feeling for the type of work the economic
and trade commission does, while noting the major
SOE reforms they are trying to tackle.
1. Who issued the circular? When?
2. What is the stated overall target and to what
categories of institutions is the task allocated (item (-))? Don't list
individual institutions, but group them into meaningful groups, then write
down a name that describes the gorup.
3. Regarding state-owned enterprise reform, what
are the first 3 reforms (items 3(4), 3(5), 3(6))? Describe the content
of the last item (3(6)) in more detail.
C. For the following four institutions
Finance Ministry (caizhengbu)
²ÆÕþ²¿
State Economic (and Trade)
Commission (guojia jingji maoyi weiyuanhui) ¹ú¼Ò¾¼ÃóÒ×ίԱ»á
(¡°¾Ã³Î¯¡±)
State Development and Planning
Commission (guojia jihua fazhan weiyuanhui) ¹ú¼Ò¼Æ»®·¢Õ¹Î¯Ô±»á
(¡°¼Æί¡±)
People's Bank of China (zhongguo
renmin yinhang) ÖйúÈËÃñÒøÐÐ
(¡°ÈËÐС±)
find out
1. what are the major tasks of the institution?
2. give three divisions within the institution.
One of the best places to start looking for information is China Infobank
within the library online database system; scroll down
and check the button for 'government' on the left. (Otherwise, the
direct addresses of these institutions in particular are
http://www.mof.gov.cn [for Ministry of Finance], with similar abbreviations
in the middle for the other three institutions (setc,
sdpc, pbc).)
D. OPTIONAL: On the Shaanxi plan (title starts with, in Chinese, "section
5, 1989 plan") [this is just one A4 sheet]
OPTIONAL:
1. Make a list of planning events at the end of the
year.
2. What is the guiding principle of this year's plan
and what are the basic tasks?
3. What type of information is provided regarding
industrial production planning?
Second assignment (due 16 September 10:00)
This assignment is a bit on the long side.
You only need to answer the questions (text
not relevant to answer the questions, you don't need to read).
Some questions go beyond the text. Try to
answer them. If you cannot, then skip them.
A. State Council decision on consolidating and standardizing the market
order
1. What are the types of problems this government regulation is concerned
with?
2. In what sectors of the economy is the "order of the market economy"
in need of consolidation and standardization?
3. What are the detailed problems in the financial (banking) sector?
4. What is the focal point (key) in the current consolidation work?
5. In what respect does the functioning of governments on all tiers
have to change? Why? (The "why" question in part goes
beyond the text.)
6. Beyond the text: is there a role for the state in a market economy?
7. How is the market to be "supervised?"
8. Why is it important to have a "credit (rating) system" (shehui xinyong
zhidu) that covers all productive units and households?
9. How is "leadership" to be strengthened, and who is responsible for
the consolidation work?
B. State Development and Planning Commission circular on consolidating
and standardizing the market order
1. Who issued this regulation? When? Why?
2. What are the main tasks?
3. How are the rectification and standardization
organized? (Section 6, first paragraph)
C. 4 pages on advantages of planned economy, by Li
Zhenzhong
1. According to this text,what are the 4 advantages
of central planning?
2. What proof is offered for each?
3. Do you agree with the argument?
If the text looks difficult, just try your best. You can be very short
on advantage 3 and 4.
!!!Item D. is NOT to be handed in!!!:
D. On the class material "Events 1976-2001:"
Use different colors to mark everything that is related to
(1) foreign trade, foreign direct investment, special
economic zones and open ports
(2) finance
(3) enterprises
(4) "Third Plenum of the i-th CCPCC" (years
1978, 1984, 1988, 1993; plus the fourth plenum in 1999) -> these triggered
major reform measures
If you come across an abbreviation you don't know, see further up in
the list of events.
You don't need to hand this in, just do it for yourself. You don't
need to remember individual
events, although it would be very good to have a rough idea of the
CCPCC Plena with their
numbering, as these crop up in Chinese texts repeatedly.
First assignment (due 9 September 10:00)
Jiang Zemin speech 1997, section 5
1. What are the eight focal points of economic reform
and development?
2. What are the role and the meaning of public ownership?
3. What is the slogan for reform of state-owned enterprises
(SOEs)?
4. What reforms are announced for SOEs?
This is a relatively short first assignment.
All following ones will be longer.