Organizer and Discussant: Peter Nan-shong Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Chair: William L. Parish, University of Chicago
Guangzhou's Strategy in Promoting Foreign Trade and Investment
Peter Tsan-yin Cheung, University of Hong Kong
With the implementation of reform and open door policy, local governments in China have assumed a much greater role in formulating its own development strategy and fostering local economic development. As Guangdong's provincial capital, Guangzhou was able to take advantage of the special policies granted by the central government as well as other preferential treatment such as its status as a coastal, open city (since 1984) and a city separately listed in the central plan (1984-1993). Nonetheless, its performance in foreign trade and investment in the early and mid 1980s was lackluster; major success was only scored since the late 1980s.
This paper will examine and explain the continuity and change in Guangzou's strategy in promoting foreign trade and investment since 1978. Three sets of issues form the analytical perspective of this paper. First, the paper will focus on the institutional context of foreign economic strategy by analyzing the interaction and coordination among different government agencies and leaders during policy formulation and implementation. Second, the definition of foreign trade and investment in Guangzhou's overall development strategy and the subsequent measures adopted to achieve such objectives by the municipal government will be examined. Third, the paper will analyze the exploitation of policy privileges, such as the status of an open city and a city separately listed in the plan, and the maximization of local discretion within the constraints of central policies during policy implementation by Guangzhou. This paper will also assess the relative significance of the above factors, namely the institutional framework, the content of foreign economic strategy, as well as the efforts of leaders in managing central policies, in explaining the continuity and change in Guangzhou's strategy toward foreign trade and investment during the reform era.
Commodification of Shanghai's Housing Sector
Rebecca L. H. Chiu, University of Hong Kong
China's urban housing system reform is both a corollary and a component of the "restructuring" of the country's socialist political and economic system along the marketization principles. Reforms in the housing sector, as well as their outcome and implications, impact on and at the same time are influenced by the general process of change in China. The crux of the housing system reform is "commodification," a sibling or an offspring of marketization. Similar to the general political and economic reforms, the housing reforms engender a new management system in the production, consumption and allocation of housing; and necessitates, or at least testifies to the need for, further institutional changes, legislative reforms and above all, a changing role of the government. The housing reform has to some extent relieved the housing problems, but at the same time creates new ones. Some of these are transitional problems, while some are structural.
By employing the privatization theories and related concepts, this paper aims to analyze the extent and the manifestation of marketization in Shanghai's urban housing system and its impact and effect on institutional changes. In particular, the changing role of the government in housing provision will be assessed. It is envisaged that the government's role in housing production relinquishes most quickly, a superstructure conducive for market operation is developing rapidly, and mortgage instruments, however, remain largely undeveloped.
Environmental Governance in China's Hypergrowth Cities: Comparing Shanghai and
Guangzhou
Carlos Wing-hung Lo, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Guangzhou and Shanghai are hypergrowth municipalities in China with increasingly serious environmental problems. This paper intends to review and analyze the significant changes Guangzhou and Shanghai have achieved in environmental governance since these two municipal governments began to take environmental management seriously ten years ago, especially in terms of regulatory procedures and organizational structure. Despite some encouraging moves, however, it is observed that environmental quality in both cities has continued to deteriorate, largely because a wide gap persists between the intent of policy and the actual achievement and because major problems have eluded serious attention. This comparative environmental study will endeavor to analyze major problems in the implementation of environmental policy, with particular attention to policy design, policy analysis and standard setting. Political problems will be identified that underline difficulties in policy formulation and implementation, and strategies to improve management are examined. It will highlight the changing institutional arrangements and policy mix of market and direct intervention in these governments' quest for effective environmental governance.
From Cadre to Public Servants? The Implementation of Civil Service Reform in
Municipal China
King K. Tsao, Chinese University of Hong Kong
This paper appraises and evaluates the implementation of civil service reform in the local governments. Two municipal governments, Shanghai and Guangzhou, will be used to study the extent of change in the reformation of the Chinese cadre system. Empirical data based upon field trips and in-depth interviews with scholars and municipal elites will be used. Moreover, this study compares and delineates these two cities in terms of their salient issues, obstacles, changes, continuities, similarities and differences. Specifically, the existing programs to train municipal employees will be examined. These include courses and programs offered by the local institutes of public administration as they play a dominant role in implementing the training programs, along with other institutions. Crucial questions such as the extent and the nature of the training programs, the design of the curriculum and the degree of other institutional supports, among others, will be addressed.
In short, this paper casts light on the capability of the local municipal elites to implement reform policies. Above all, it attempts to provide some hypotheses from these two cases to the study of central-local relationship in contemporary Chinese politics.