Sorace Dissertation Final Manuscript
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Copyright by Christian Phillip Sorace 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Christian Phillip Sorace Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: BEYOND REPAIR: STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 2008 WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE Committee: Robert Moser, Supervisor William Hurst, Co-Supervisor Catherine Boone Paula Newberg Patricia Maclachlan Henry Dietz BEYOND REPAIR: STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 2008 WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE by Christian Phillip Sorace, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2014 Dedication For Phillip and Faustina Acknowledgements I would like to thank William Hurst for his inexhaustible patience and support at each stage of the PhD process: from training me in the China field, discussing research design and strategy, providing criticism and commentary on multiple drafts of my writing, collaborating on other projects, and being a genuine friend as well as mentor. I would also like to thank Catherine Boone, Elizabeth Perry, Andrew Mertha, and Jodi Dean for providing constructive feedback on my writing at various crucial stages. During fieldwork, J.J. Kinkel’s friendship kept me sane. Conducting his fieldwork in China at the same time, I looked forward to and depended on our weekly phone conversations, strategizing, feedback, and venting sessions. I have also benefitted tremendously from the lifelong friendships and ongoing conversations with Todd Kesselman, Mark Gutzmer, Peter Mohanty, Regina Goodnow, and Edwin Schmitt. In China, I would have been lost without the support of Guo Hong, Zhang Xiangrong, Li Yongdong, Peng Dapeng, Guan Kai, and many others. My desire to pursue a PhD and career in academia was a gift of the intellectual generosity of people I studied under earlier in my career, especially Erik Vogt, Lauren Berlant, and Eric Santner. I would also like to thank my entire dissertation committee; the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Government, in particular Robert Moser and Tom Pangle for generously funding my preliminary trips to China; the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Research Fellowship for making my research possible; and, the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences for hosting me. v Finally, I would like to specially thank my partner Liona Liu for her optimism, light-heartedness, and encouragement in those dark moments of frustration and uncertainty. vi BEYOND REPAIR: STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE 2008 WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE Christian Phillip Sorace, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisor: Robert Moser Co-supervisor: William Hurst My dissertation offers insight into the political epistemology of the Chinese Communist Party and state on the basis of their activities during the post-2008 Wenchuan earthquake reconstruction. By “political epistemology,” I mean how the Party thinks about the nature of politics, including but not limited to the role of the state in the economy. An important facet of this approach is taking seriously the CCP’s distinctive manner of thinking, writing, and talking about politics that is too often dismissed as empty jargon that means little in post-Mao China. I show how a Maoist conception of politics remains at the bedrock of how the CCP understands its own political identity and actions. Certainly, many of the salient features of Maoism have been discarded, such as the emphasis on class struggle, continuous revolution, and the role of the masses in political movements. Despite these trends toward de-politicization and technocracy, the Party’s confidence in the rationality of its planning apparatus and in its ability to mobilize politically to achieve the ends of vii market construction and biopolitical social transformation constitutes what I call Maoist neo-developmentalism. Each of my empirical case chapters examines a localized combination of post- disaster reconstruction with a national strategy for long-term, “great leap” development. Thus, each chapter traces how the Party’s plans to capitalize the countryside - by way of urbanization, tourism, and ecology – have become stuck in transitional processes. The spectacular market transitions and transformations envisioned by Party leaders became cycles of state investment in local economies that only function by virtue of continued state involvement. The Party’s massive expenditures of maintaining the appearance of success, however, generated local resentment at perceived waste, indifference, and corruption. Each case chapter shows evidence not so much of social resistance to the state (although of course that happened, too) but an intimate negotiation between state and society of high expectations, mutual recriminations, and frustrations. I argue that these “perforations” deep within the tissue of the state-society relationship only make sense when viewed from the context of a Maoist social contact in which the Party’s legitimacy depends on its perceived ability to serve the people. viii Table of Contents List of Figures ........................................................................................................xi List of Illustrations..................................................................................................xii Introduction: Ambitions...........................................................................................1 Listen to the Party!..........................................................................................3 Chapter Outline............................................................................................10 Chapter 1: Reading Mao on the Ruins of the Wenchuan Earthquake.................13 Literature Review .........................................................................................13 Mao as Curator of the Contemporary..........................................................23 Communist Faith ..........................................................................................31 Serve the People............................................................................................34 The Resurgence of Planning amid the Expansion and Deepening of the Market ..............................................................................................................38 How to Plan a Miracle..................................................................................41 The Reconstruction’s Impact on Local State-Society Relations ..................47 Chapter 2: Contradictions and Consequences ......................................................54 Speed and Quality ........................................................................................54 The Economics of “Blood Transfusion”.......................................................59 The Paradoxes of Democratic Centralism....................................................66 Conclusion ....................................................................................................69 Chapter 3: Dujiangyan City Capital Goes to the Countryside, But Gets Lost Along the Way.........................................................................................................71 Background...................................................................................................72 “The Three Concentrations”........................................................................78 Land .....................................................................................................78 Industry................................................................................................85 New Urban Citizen Construction........................................................90 Conclusion: Fantasy as Necessary Supplement of Rationality ...................108 ix Chapter 4: Yingxiu Township The Political Aesthetics of Development............110 Riding on Horseback, While Looking at Flowers.......................................111 The Institutional Origins of Political Aesthetic Rationality........................114 Waiting for Godot Political Economy ........................................................117 The Leadership Visit...................................................................................132 Conclusion ..................................................................................................140 Chapter 5: Qingchuan County The Ideology of Ecology ...................................143 Background.................................................................................................143 Ecological Civilization ................................................................................148 Qingchuan’s 12th Five-Year Plan...............................................................155 Ecological Paradise or Waste of Money?....................................................171 Conclusion ..................................................................................................181 Conclusion: Perforations......................................................................................183 Appendices...........................................................................................................190 APPENDIX 2 “11th Five-Year” Plan Primary Target Completion Situation193 References............................................................................................................195 x List of Figures Figure 3.1