Search results

This article analyses the extent of the China-India diplomatic thaw since the early 1990s. Without ignoring the existence of multiple cooperation channels, or seeking to minimise the importance of the considerable achievements realised in recent years by the two governments towards normalising their relations, the article shows that relations between the two Asian giants remain hamstrung by a series of geostrategic and economic rivalries. Despite fast growth in trade and in specific areas of economic cooperation, the normalisation of ties between Beijing and New Delhi does not yet constitute a genuine strategic partnership. (China Perspect/GIGA)

In Chinese politics privatization has never been fully acknowledged the way it has in Eastern Europe or the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Yet it has been one of the major orientations in the restructuring of Chinese state enterprises since 1994. The results are highly contrasting & depend primarily on the competitive & institutional environments in which these privatizations were carried out. Privatization has produced mediocre results (particularly when shares were sold to employees in companies where skills & internal controls have improved little) when carried out in a non-competitive environment with weak legal, bureaucratic, fiscal & banking institutions to support a market economy. For this reason, in the western, northeastern & inner provinces where the public sector still dominates, the central government must now step in more firmly to accelerate reforms in social welfare, commercial banking & the legal environment so as to improve the efficiency of programs to restructure small- & medium-sized state companies. On the other hand, in the coastal provinces, widespread greenfield investments have been a decisive factor in the rapidity & efficiency of the privatization process of small- & medium-sized state companies. Adapted from the source document.

All the economies of the industrialised countries have experienced periods of intense concentration of their industrial plant since the beginning of the century. From this point of view, China is an anomaly. For reasons connected to its economic and political history, Chinese industry has, until very recently, been sheltered from moves towards concentration. The author explores concentration and the emergence of corporate groups in Chinese industry paying attention to the legacy maoist period, the recentralisation of financial circuits, the clarification of property rights, the dangers of concentration directed by bureaucracy among other topics. (DÜI-Sen)