February 22, 2012
Designated Drivers: State Capitalism in China’s Auto Industry
Geoffrey Cowan Forum (Annenberg 207), 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. | |
The U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California invites you to a talk by G.E. Anderson discussing his book about the Chinese car industry and the delicate nature of China's planned economy.
China's unprecedented level of growth over the past three decades, combined with a financial crisis in the West, have led many to question whether free-market capitalism is the better system for generating sustainable economic growth. Not only have some of China's political leaders already declared victory, but many Western observers have begun to question whether the Chinese may not have discovered a magic formula for combining free markets with state control.
Are the Chinese breaking the rules of capitalism, or are they re-writing them?
Anderson’s in-depth look at industrial development in China’s auto industry reveals not only how China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s largest market for autos, but also political principles that have shaped China’s approach to industrial planning in general.
The picture that emerges is of a central government certain of what it wants, but willing to break its own rules to achieve higher level goals. It also reveals the inherent weaknesses in China’s state-centric system that may prevent it from becoming the innovator and industrial power it aspires to become.
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