The political economy of SOEs: National Champions or socialist institutions?
Abstract
Over the last years, China’s central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have become huge international players. While these “National Champions” now rank among the largest global businesses, they are also known for poor efficiency, low productivity, and often portrayed as opponents to corporate reforms by both Chinese and foreign media. Looking at the local operations of national oil giant CNPC in China’s North-Eastern city of Daqing, a more complex picture emerges. In industrial cities such as Daqing, SOEs remain deeply embedded in local society, economy, and politics, and it becomes clear that looking at SOEs as economic organizations only shows half the picture. Revealing the socio-political missions vested in CNPC’s local branches, I discuss SOEs as hybrid organizations straddling Party-state administration and economy, and illustrate some of the historical, ideological, and structural reasons for slow SOE reform progress.
Bio
Nis Grünberg has an MA in China Studies from the University of Copenhagen and recently earned his PhD at the Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School. He is currently working as a postdoc at CBS and the Sino-Danish Center in Beijing.
Feel free to bring your own lunch. There will be coffee/tea.
Practical information
Time: 25 April 2018, 12:30-13:30
Place: NIAS, room 18.1.08, CSS, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Cph
Organized by: ADI, ThinkChina, NIAS
Please join us to launch Hongwei Bao’s new book on queer China, the first book to look at gay identity and queer activism in the People’s Republic of China from a cultural studies perpective. The event is organized by ThinkChina.dk and NIAS.
Abstract:
Hongwei Bao’s book is a not just a study of ‘queer China’ through the lens of male homosexuality; it also examines the PRC’s socialist legacy and considers how the country is undergoing rapid transformations under the influence of transnational capitalism. He examines queer films, fiction and personal diaries as well as research within the urban gay communities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Hongwei assesses China’s socialist legacy in shaping sexual identity, queer popular culture and political activism. His intelligence, engagement and sunny humour shine though his writing.
(Queer activist Peng Yanhui wins China’s first lawsuit against gay conversion therapy, Beijing, 19 December 2014. (photo courtesy of Xiao Muyi))
Bio:
Dr Hongwei Bao is Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the University of Nottingham, UK. Prior to this, he worked as a lecturer in Asian Media at Nottingham Trent University (2012-13), lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Potsdam (2011, part-time), lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Sydney (2006-10, part-time) and lecturer in International and Intercultural Communication at the National Academy of Chinese Theatrical Arts, Beijing (2002-06). In 2011, he was awarded his PhD in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney.
Discussants:
Following the book launch, Dr Xiaodong Lin, Department of Sociology, University of York and
Dr Mai Corlin, the University of Copenhagen will comment on the book.
Please sign up by clicking here
Time: 7th of May 2018, 14:00-16:00
Venue: University of Copenhagen, South Campus, Room TBA.