Varieties of state regulation: How China regulates its socialist market economyYukyung Yeo Harvard University Press, 2020, 220 pp., £39.95 (hb), ISBN: 9780674247857.
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Author | Aifang Ma |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12714 |
BOOK REVIEW
Varieties of state regulation: How China regulates
its socialist market economy
Yukyung Yeo
Harvard University Press, 2020, 220 pp., £39.95 (hb), ISBN: 9780674247857.
Regulation has become a popular subject in China since the early 1990s, under the backdrop of the domestic liberali-
zation reform and the international neoliberal move. The book by Yukyung Yeo on the varieties of state regulation in
China is a breakthrough for regulation studies on China. Written in a clear and engaging style, this book provides
original insights into regulation practices in an authoritarian setting.
Based on 103 extensive interviews with Chinese government officials, business managers and scholars, Yeo con-
tends that the level of ownership, rather than the ownership structure (public or private), is the key to understanding
the varieties of state regulation in China. A major insight stemming from her research is the importance of socialist
political economic institutions which have so far been overlooked in the existing literature. She contends that these
institutions, including the SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), the National
Development and Reform Commission, the Organization Department, party committees established inside firms,
leading small groups (LSGs)
1
and central inspection groups, steer the regulation in China.
The central argument of the book is worth citing in full:
…the central party-state exerts tight regulatory control over enterprises when industrial sectors hold
strategic value to the national economy. The specific forms of regulation vary across sectors, as well
as within sectors when the type of ownership in a sector is diverse (e.g., central party-state, provincial
government, and private, as in the automobile industry). When the central party-state holds formal
rights to oversee the business of SOEs, it exercises regulation directly. When it does not have formal
rights to supervise and intervene in the business of firms—because they are owned privately or by
local governments—the central party-state exercises regulation informally and indirectly. (p. 3)
Yeo reviews two traditional approaches to regulation: the neoliberal and statist approaches. The neoliberal
approach is insufficient to make sense of regulation in China because, for Yeo, China has never aimed to become a
liberal market economy. Instead, it tried to ‘search for a middle ground that promotes market liberalization under the
party-state's close supervision’(p. 136). The presence of the party-state over the market has remained consistent,
although its influence is wielded selectively depending upon firms' level of ownership and their strategic importance.
Yeo agrees that the statist approach holds greater explanatory power for understanding Chinese regulation. The
statist approach places the state at the centre of regulatory activities, portraying the state as the orchestrator of mar-
ket competition. The objective of the state is to improve the international competitiveness of strategic sectors and
1
The terminology has changed since the time of Yeo's research. According to the Plan on Deepening Reform of State and Party Institutions released in March
2018 by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the term Leading Small Group is replaced with Commission. For instance, the Central
Cybersecurity and Informatization Small Leading Group was changed into the Central Cybersecurity and Informatization Commission.
Received: 16 December 2020 Accepted: 17 December 2020
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12714
Public Admin. 2021;99:207–209. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 207
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