Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-01T01:32:11.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Assistance, Central–Local Relations, and Ethnic Regions in China's Authoritarian Regime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2013

STAN HOK-WUI WONG  and
HIROKI TAKEUCHI
STAN HOK-WUI WONG
Affiliation:
Chinese University of Hong Konghwwong@cuhk.edu.hk
HIROKI TAKEUCHI
Affiliation:
Southern Methodist Universityhtakeuch@smu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When a central government deals with local demands, it may strengthen political accountability of the local governments by political decentralization or offer benefits through economic assistance. An authoritarian regime uses economic assistance policy because political decentralization may contradict regime survival. Although economic benefits can be used to buy political support, the distribution of these benefits is seldom equal. We argue that the unequal distribution is more salient in regions where ethnic minorities reside because the unusual demographic composition of those areas make it difficult for the national government to evaluate the performance of the local government who is responsible for the distribution of the economic benefits. As a result, economic assistance may backfire in ethnic regions and intensify their existing conflicts. We develop a simple formal model to illustrate our arguments and explore the cases of Xinjiang and Hong Kong for empirical analysis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 14 , Special Issue 1: Japan–China Fragile Partnership: At Fortieth Anniversary of Diplomatic Normalization , March 2013 , pp. 97 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alemán, Eduardo and Treisman, Daniel (2005), ‘Fiscal Politics in “Ethnically-Mined”, Developing, Federal States: Central Strategies and Secessionist Violence’, in Roeder, Philip and Rothchild, Donald (eds.), Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 173–216.Google Scholar
Angrist, Joshua D. and Pischke, Jorn-Steffen (2009), Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel and Katz, Jonathan N. (1995), ‘What To Do (And Not To Do) with Time-Series-Cross-Section Data’, American Political Science Review, 89: 634–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becquelin, Nicolas (2000), ‘Xinjiang in the Nineties’, China Journal, 44: 65–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, Thomas P. and Lü, Xiaobo (2003), Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Smith, Alastair, Silverson, Randolph M., and Morrow, James D. (2003), The Logic of Political Survival, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caselli, Francesco and Coleman II, Wilbur John (2006), ‘On the Theory of Ethnic Conflict’, Manuscript, London School of Economics and Duke University.Google Scholar
Cheibub, Jose Antonio, Gandhi, Jennifer, and Vreeland, James Raymond (2010), ‘Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited’, Public Choice, 143: 67–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiu, Y. W. Peter (2006), ‘CEPA: A Milestone in the Economic Integration between Hong Kong and Mainland China’, Journal of Contemporary China, 15: 275–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmet, Klaus, Breton, Michel Le, Ortuno-Ortin, Ignacio, and Weber, Shlomo (2009), ‘Stability of Nations and Genetic Diversity’, Working Paper, Universidad Carlos III.Google Scholar
Dillon, Michael (2004), Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far North West, London: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Edin, Maria (2003), ‘State Capacity and Local Agent Control in China: CCP Cadre Management from a Township Perspective’, China Quarterly, 173: 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finley, Joanne Smith (2007), ‘Chinese Oppression in Xinjiang, Middle Eastern Conflicts and Global Islamic Solidarities among the Uyghurs’, Journal of Contemporary China, 16: 627–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, Graham E. and Lipman, Jonathan N. (2004), ‘Islam in Xinjiang’, in Starr, S. Frederick (ed.), Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 320–52.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Jennifer and Przeworski, Adam (2007), ‘Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats’, Comparative Political Studies, 40: 1279–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara (1999), ‘What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?’, American Review of Political Science, 2: 115–44.Google Scholar
Guiso, Luigi, Sapienza, Paola, and Zingales, Luigi (2006), ‘Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20 (2): 23–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadenius, Axel and Teorell, Jan (2007), ‘Pathways from Authoritarianism’, Journal of Democracy, 18: 143–57.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael (1975), Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–1966, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. (1970), Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Yasheng (1996), Inflation and Investment Controls in China: The Political Economy of Central-Local Relations during the Reform Era, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inoguchi, Takashi and Bacon, Paul (2003), ‘Governance, Democracy, and the “End of Transition”’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 4: 169–90.Google Scholar
Landry, Pierre F. (2008), Decentralized Authoritarianism in China: The Communist Party's Control of Local Elites in the Post-Mao Era, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loh, Christine (2006), Functional Constituencies: A Unique Feature of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google Scholar
Magaloni, Beatriz (2008), ‘Credible Power-Sharing and the Longevity of Authoritarian Rule’, Comparative Political Studies, 41: 715–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malesky, Edmund J. (2009), ‘Gerrymandering Vietnamese Style: Escaping the Partial Reform Equilibrium in a Nondemocratic Regime’, Journal of Politics, 71: 132–59.Google Scholar
Manion, Melanie (2004), Corruption by Design: Building Clean Government in Mainland China and Hong Kong, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migdal, Joel S. (1988), Strong Societies and Weak States: State–Society Relations and State Capacities in the Third World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Millward, James (2004), Violent Separatism in Xinjiang: A Critical Assessment, Washington, DC: East–West Center Washington.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. and Li, Lianjiang (1999), ‘Selective Policy Implementation in Rural China’, Comparative Politics, 31: 167–86.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin J. and Li, Lianjiang (2006), Rightful Resistance in Rural China, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pei, Minxin (2006), China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shih, Victor C. (2008), Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
So, Alvin Y. (2000), ‘Hong Kong's Problematic Democratic Transition: Power Dependency or Business Hegemony?’, Journal of Asian Studies, 59: 359–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spolaore, Enrico and Wacziarg, Romain (2009), ‘The Diffusion of Development’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124: 469–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treisman, Daniel (1999), After the Deluge: Regional Crises and Political Consolidation in Russia, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Treisman, Daniel (2007), The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedeman, Andrew (2001), ‘Incompetence, Noise and Fear in Central–Local Relations in China’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 35: 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whiting, Susan H. (2004), ‘The Cadre Evaluation System at the Grassroots: The Paradox of Party Rule’, in Naughton, Barry J. and Yang, Dali L. (eds.), Holding China Together: Diversity and National Integration in the Post-Deng Era, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wiemer, Calla (2004), ‘The Economy of Xinjiang’, in Starr, S. Frederick (ed.), Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 163–89.Google Scholar
Wong, Stan Hok-Wui (2010), ‘Political Connections and Firm Performance: The Case of Hong Kong’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 10: 275–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, Stan Hok-Wui (2012), ‘Authoritarian Co-optation in the Age of Globalisation: Evidence from Hong Kong’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 42: 182–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Joseph (2008), ‘Do Authoritarian Institutions Constrain? How Legislatures Affect Economic Growth and Investment’, American Journal of Political Science, 52: 322–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xinjiang Tongji Nianjian [Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook] (1997–2008), Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Xu, Shuhua, Huang, Wei, Qian, Ji, and Jin, Li (2008), ‘Analysis of Genomic Admixture in Uyghur and Its Implication in Mapping Strategy’, American Journal of Human Genetics, 82: 883–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yee, Herbert S. (2003), ‘Ethnic Relations in Xinjiang: A Survey of Uygur-Han Relations in Urumqi’, Journal of Contemporary China, 12: 431–52.Google Scholar
Zhan, Jing Vivian (2009), ‘Decentralizing China: Analysis of Central Strategies in China's Fiscal Reforms’, Journal of Contemporary China 18: 445–62.Google Scholar