VOLUME 3, ISSUE 4, OCT–DEC 2018 TO THE SOIL The Labour of Rural Transformation in China Made in China is a quarterly on Chinese labour, civil society, and rights. This project has been produced with the financial assistance of the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW), the Australian National University; the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 654852; and the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of the European Union, CIW, Lund University, or the institutions to which the authors are affiliated. Only those who make a living from the soil can understand the value of soil. City dwellers scorn country people for their closeness to the land; they treat them as if they were truly ‘soiled’. But to country people, the soil is the root of their lives. Fei Xiaotong, From the Soil (1948) TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL (P. 6) BRIEFS (P. 7) OP-EDS (P. 11) THE JASIC MOBILISATION (P. 12) Au Loong Yu BRACING FOR CHINA’S SYSTEMIC COMPETITION (P. 17) VOLUME 3, ISSUE #4 Lucrezia Poggetti OCT–DEC 2018 ISSN 2206-9119 HOW THE CHINESE CENSORS HIGHLIGHT FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS IN ACADEMIC CHIEF EDITORS PUBLISHING (P. 22) Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere Nicholas Loubere and Ivan Franceschini EDITORIAL BOARD Kevin Lin, Elisa Nesossi, Andrea Enrico Pia, CHINA COLUMNS (P. 26) Christian Sorace STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS OF CHINESE INVESTORS IN EUROPE (P. 28) ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Ulrike Reisach Au Loong Yu, Daniele Dainelli, Brian DeMare, Ivan Franceschini, Jane Hayward, Tamara CHINESE INVESTORS IN GERMANY (P. 34) Jacka, Thomas Sætre Jakobsen, Johan Wolfgang Mueller Lindquist, Nicholas Loubere, Gianluigi Negro, Elisa Oreglia, Lucrezia Poggetti, Ulrike Reisach, Wolfgang Mueller, Sarah Rogers, FOCUS (P. 40) Yvan Schulz, Marina Svensson, John Aloysius INSIDE WORK (P. 42) Zinda Tamara Jacka COPY-EDITING CHINA’S LAND REFORMS AND THE LOGIC Sharon Strange OF CAPITAL ACCUMULATION (P. 48) Jane Hayward EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Nan Liu, Tessie Sun BEYOND PROLETARIANISATION (P. 52) Thomas Sætre Jakobsen ART DIRECTION Tommaso Facchin MANUFACTURED MODERNITY (P. 58) Sarah Rogers COVER ARTWORK Marc Verdugo MANAGING THE ANTHROPOCENE (P. 62) John Aloysius Zinda RURAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND URBANISATION (P. 68) Marina Svensson DOMESTIC ARCHAEOLOGY (P. 72) Daniele Dainelli LAND WARS: A CONVERSATION WITH BRIAN DEMARE (P. 80) Nicholas Loubere WINDOW ON ASIA (P. 85) ILLICIT ECONOMIES OF THE INTERNET (P. 88) Johan Lindquist CHINESE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS GO ABROAD (P. 92) Elisa Oreglia WORK OF ARTS (P. 96) PLASTIC CHINA: BEYOND WASTE IMPORTS (P. 96) Yvan Schulz CONVERSATIONS (P. 102) THE INTERNET IN CHINA: A CONVERSATION WITH GIANLUIGI NEGRO (P. 98) Ivan Franceschini CONTRIBUTOR BIOS (P. 106) BIBLIOGRAPHY (P. 109) EDITORIAL To the Soil Sarah Rogers reflects on poverty resettlement projects to try to make sense of the intent The Labour of Rural and impact of such large-scale interventions Transformation in China on both the lives of individuals and the transformation of the Chinese countryside as a whole. Marina Svensson describes her experience at the Third Ningbo International In December 2018, the Chinese authorities Photography Week, which this year focussed commemorated the 40th anniversary of China’s on documenting rural transformations and reform and opening up, an event generally processes of urbanisation. John Aloysius hailed as the beginning of the country’s rise as Zinda highlights how scholars and journalists a global economic and political power. These alike tend to place environment and labour in four decades of unprecedented economic separate boxes and seldom consider the labour growth and transformation have been rooted of environmental protection or the people in a fundamental socioeconomic restructuring. who perform it. Daniele Dainelli presents Contemporary China has changed from ‘Domestic Archeology’, a photographic project a largely agrarian society predominantly on the Chinese countryside that took him seven inhabited by peasants, to a rapidly urbanising years to accomplish. Finally, Nicholas Loubere one, characterised by a floating populace interviews Brian DeMare about Land Wars, moving back and forth between rural and urban his latest book on land reform in Maoist China. spaces, which are in a continuous state of flux. The issue includes op-eds on the Jasic Going hand in hand with China’s ascent into crackdown by Au Loong Yu; the perplexities modernity is the subordination of rural areas regarding investing in China among German and people. While rural China has historically policymakers by Lucrezia Poggetti; and the been a site of extraction and exploitation, in latest controversies surrounding the self- the post-reform period this has intensified, censoring behaviour of some international and rurality itself has become a problem, best academic publishers by Nicholas Loubere typified through the ubiquitous propaganda and Ivan Franceschini. In the China Columns about the need to revitalise the countryside, section, Ulrike Reisach examines the variegated and ongoing attempts to reconstruct rural landscape of Chinese investment in Europe, areas in a new image. while Wolfgang Mueller presents the results This issue of Made in China focuses on the of a survey he conducted in Chinese-invested labour that these attempts to restructure and companies in Germany. The Window on Asia reformulate rural China have entailed, and section offers two essays by Johan Lindquist the ways in which they have transformed and Elisa Oreglia, which respectively look into rural lives and communities. In the special the ‘like economy’ of click farms in Indonesia section, Tamara Jacka shows how the and the spread of WeChat among Internet development trajectory of modern China users in Myanmar. In the cultural section, Yvan has been underpinned and enabled by the Schulz reviews Wang Jiuliang’s documentary exploitation of the ‘inside work’ of rural Plastic China. women. Jane Hayward examines how rural We wrap up the issue with a conversation land reforms in China are being driven by the with Gianluigi Negro about The Internet in imperative of capital accumulation. Thomas China, his latest book on the development of Sætre Jakobsen bemoans the fact that China the digital sphere in the Chinese context. labour studies’ bias towards urban contexts is neglecting the reality of hundreds of millions The Editors of workers who live between the farmlands in the countryside and the workplaces of the city. 6 MADE IN CHINA / 4, 2018 BRIEFS Oct-Dec 2018 BRIEFS Fare Thee Well Private Economy? OCT/DEC As China celebrates the 40th anniversary of the launch of economic reforms in December 2018, concerns grow about the Chinese government’s commitment to further liberalise the economy. 2018 Despite their economic contributions over the last four decades, private firms in China find themselves embroiled in an ever-challenging situation, plagued by slower economic growth, The Chinese Trade Union Holds tighter credit lines, tougher regulations, and Its National Congress stronger Party interference. These hardships have resulted in at least ten private firms being Between 22 and 26 October 2018, the All- nationalised by state-owned enterprises in China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) the first nine months of 2018. Some Chinese convened its Seventeenth National Congress. In intellectuals went as far as to publicly assert delivering his Report on the Economic Situation that private companies should be eliminated in front of the convened unionists, Premier Li from China’s economy considering that they Keqiang re-emphasised the role of the ACFTU had completed their job of helping China as a ‘transmission belt’ between the Chinese prosper. Amid these arguments, President Xi Communist Party and the Chinese workers. Jinping reiterated the government’s support Politburo member Wang Huning reiterated for private firms in October. His assurance was, the obligation of the ACFTU to motivate, however, quickly called into question. In early unite, and guide Chinese workers under the November, authorities in Beijing first banned Party’s leadership. The Congress passed some the executive director of Unirule, a liberal amendments to the Constitution of the ACFTU. think tank, from travelling to the United States One remarkable change lies in the addition to attend a symposium on China’s economic of ‘sincerely serving the mass of workers’ to reforms, and then revoked the business licence the Union’s earlier mission of ‘protecting the of Unirule, forcing it to suspend all its activities. legal rights of the workers.’ Union officials Such occurrences show how the current Chinese said this change was largely in response to the leadership has become increasingly intolerant evolving contradictions in Chinese society. of dissenting views, not only in the political Another noteworthy amendment pertained to realm, but also on economic matters. This can be the incorporation of Xi Jinping Thought as an seen in the latest attempt at rewriting Chinese essential part of the ACFTU’s guiding ideology. history, as evidenced by an exhibition titled ‘The In endorsing this amendment, the Congress Great Revolution’ that opened at the National reaffirmed the core status of President Xi Jinping Museum in Beijing on 13 November to celebrate in the CCP. Similar rhetoric also prevailed during the anniversary of economic reforms. While the Twelfth National Congress