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Self-Reliance, Internal Trade and China's Economic Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

William G. Snead
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Extract

Scholarly interest in a cellular model for sectors of the Chinese economy dates at least to G. William Skinner's “Marketing and social structure in rural China,” published in 1964–65, but based on his field work from 1949 to 1950 and on a theoretical foundation developed by Christaller and Löch in the 1930s and 40s. New interest was sparked by Audrey Donnithorne's 1972 article in this journal, in which she attempted to demonstrate that China had recently “experienced an intensification of the tendencies towards a cellular economy,” which she claimed had been strong even before the Cultural Revolution.

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Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 62 , June 1975, pp. 302 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1975

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References

* This Note is adapted from a longer working paper for which I thank Professors Alexander Eckstein, Dwight Perkins and Richard Suttmeier for comments and encouragement; Bill O'Hearn, Gary Swim and Lourdes Wan for research assistance; and Hamilton College for financial support.

1. Skinner, G. William, “Marketing and social structure in rural China,” Parts I–III, Journal of Asian Studies, 11 1964, February 1965 and May 1965.Google Scholar

2. For a brief introduction and useful references, see Chap. 5 of Heilbrun, James, Urban Economics and Public Policy (New York: St Martin's Press, 1974).Google Scholar

3. Donnithorne, Audrey, “China's cellular economy: some economic trends since the Cultural Revolution,” The China Quarterly, No. 52 (1972), pp. 605–19.Google Scholar

4. Ibid. p. 605.

5. Ibid. p. 610.

6. Ibid. pp. 606–609.

7. Ibid. pp. 612–13.

8. Ibid. pp. 605–606.

9. Perkins, Dwight, “Centralization and decentralization in Mainland China's agriculture,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 78, No. 2 (05 1964), p. 209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Skinner, , “Marketing and social structure.” Part I, p. 31.Google Scholar

11. Donnithorne, , “China's cellular economy,” p. 611.Google Scholar

12. Skinner, , “Marketing and social structure,” p. 31Google Scholar. Donnithorne does not claim that economic and administrative regions are merging in China. This remains an unresolved issue.

13. A recent example of this usage occurs in Esposito, Bruce, “The Chinese economic model: a preliminary note,” Asian Affairs (03–04 1974), p. 242.Google Scholar

14. See Blair, John M., Economic Concentration (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972), Chaps. 5 and 6.Google Scholar

15. Donnithorne, , “China's cellular economy,” p. 607.Google Scholar

16. Ibid. p. 608.

17. Ibid. pp. 611–12.

18. Ibid. p. 615.

19. Ibid. p. 607.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid. p. 611.

22. Ibid. p. 607.

23. Tachai: Standard Bearer in China's Agriculture (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1972), p. 7.Google Scholar

24. Ibid. p. 17.

25. Donnithorne, , “China's cellular economy,” p. 618.Google Scholar

26. Yu, Ch'eng, “Rely on one's own efforts, increase the sources of income and cut down expenditures,” Red Flag, No. 9 (8 08 1970)Google Scholar, in Selections from China Mainland Magazines, No. 690, p. 81.Google Scholar

27. “Peking Yuehtan Transistor Facility Plant develops by self-reliance,” “New China News Agency (NCNA) (in English) (Peking), 15 04 1970Google Scholar, in Survey of the China Mainland Press (SCMP), No. 4643, p. 17.Google Scholar

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