As a country rich in mineral resources, contemporary China remains surprisingly overlooked in the research about the much debated 'resource curse'. This is the first full-length study to examine the distinctive effects of mineral resources on the state, capital and labour and their interrelations in China. Jing Vivian Zhan draws on a wealth of empirical evidence, both qualitative and quantitative. Taking a subnational approach, she zooms in on local situations and demonstrates how mineral resources affect local governance and economic as well as human development. Characterizing mining industries as pro-capital and anti-labour, this study also highlights the redistributive roles that the state can play to redress the imbalance. It reveals the Chinese state's strategies to contain the resource curse and also pinpoints some pitfalls of the China model, which offer important policy implications for China and other resource-rich countries.

‘… in her excellent new book China’s Contained Resource Curse: How Minerals Shape State-Capital-Labor Relations, political scientist Jing Vivian Zhan has offered a nuanced analysis of how Beijing has largely avoided the potentially deleterious effects of mining and drilling at a national level, even as local communities in particularly resource-dependent areas of China have struggled.’

Manfred Elfstrom Source: The China Quarterly