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Book Review: Asia and the Pacific: Democracy in East Asia: A New Century

traces back to the contemporary history of socialism and the revolutionary past in order to discuss China through an historical lens and to distinguish its unique characteristics. Lin Chun further discusses the relationship between the state and the market by reflecting the historical and revolutionary paths of the country. She then argues that the Chinese model of economic development is built on socialism with state-led development characteristics rather than being an imitation of capitalism. The author maintains that China is a socialist market economy, which builds on a socialist state. The book argues that there is antagonism against a capitalist transition in which the state’s role and responsibility and its people should be taken seriously. It challenges the general assumption of the correlation between capitalism and development. Through Marx’s theoretical and analytical lenses, China’s development does not build on the experience of following the West but instead breaks the link of capitalism and development. Through the struggle and the transformations of class and society, it provides a new form of a socialist developmental state. China and Global Capitalism provides a novel understanding of the transition in China. It reminds us of the importance of the Marxism and socialism debate on China’s development path at a time when the world is enjoying the country’s economic success and questioning the rise of capitalism and neoliberalism in contemporary China. It provides the interesting perspective of seeing whether China can be an alternative to the West – something that may harbour a universal implication in being able to disentangle the deadlock of social economic relations. The book examines the country and its interactions with global capitalism from the past to the present and future, emphasising the historical and socialist legacies. It discusses the class divide, land reform and state ownership, and it also focuses on the current debates around rural labour, state capacity and the World Trade Organization’s impact on China, alongside discussion of the ideological identity and organisational capacity of the Communist Party. The book is heavily theory-based, but it could have been more persuasive and more accessible for general readers if it had brought in some empirical materials.