Building 'capitalism with China's characteristics': The political economy of model joint ventures in the automotive industry

This thesis examines the nature of China's post-Mao societal transformation. The central argument is that there has been a significant shift to capitalist social relations of production in China ‘Model’ joint venture sector. It is further suggested that China's foreign-invested sectors more broadly operate according to the logic of capitalist accumulation. The research for this study focuses on two key Model joint ventures (JVs) in China's automotive industry: First Automotive Works-Volkswagen and Beijing Jeep. In the Model JVs, the capitalist transformation has involved fundamental structural changes in production and accumulation, and in state-firm relations. Changes at both the levels of production and the Chinese state have been linked to the transformative influence of international capital. This capitalist transformation has also involved the creation of Model JV-centred production networks which link the Model JVs ‘downward’ to local parts suppliers and ‘outward’ to foreign capital. The thesis further shows that a hegemonic regime of labour control is integral to the specific form of China's Model JV capitalism; and that a key stratum of Chinese elite managers has emerged in the Model JVs as the main agents of the capitalist transformation. In fostering the Model JVs, the Chinese (Party-)state at both the central and local levels has enacted important policy shifts, and has undergone functional changes which preconditioned the capitalist transformation of these firms.