“Liberating the productive forces”: Understanding China's ascent through its labor market evolution from the 1970s to the early 2000s

Abstract

Karl Marx's revolutionary socialism, Karl Polanyi's observation of the “planned” nature of market economies, and Claude Meillassoux's Marxist approach to economic anthropology form the basis for a historical review of labor market evolution in the People's Republic of China (PRC) for the period from the 1970s to the early 2000s. The so-called “socialist market economy” in the PRC implies above all the state's strong intervention in the labor market, which has not worked in the spirit of restriction (i.e., reducing working hours, increasing social welfare and leisure time, and so forth), but as an enabler of labor commodification, for the purpose of boosting the economy. The notion of “liberating the productive forces,” a “Chinese interpretation” of Karl Marx's fight for human emancipation, provides insights on the relationship between economic development and labor market evolution, and thus contributes to the literature on China's ascent.