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From the Law of Value Debate to the One-Child Policy in China: On Accounting and Biopolitics

From the Law of Value Debate to the One-Child Policy in China: On Accounting and Biopolitics This article argues that the origins of the one-child policy beginning in 1980 in China, and its development into the current system of “comprehensive population management,” are to be found not in any unfolding of a statist or authoritarian logic, or within the parameters of a nominally “socialist” project, but rather in a return to a properly capitalist set of concerns and governmental techniques, the first iteration of which can be traced to the 1920s and 1930s. With regard to the broad set of economic reforms launched in the period 1979–81, it is argued that the one-child policy is absolutely continuous with other reforms across economic sectors (agricultural responsibility systems and urban enterprise reforms) and discontinuous with anything we might understand as population management in the period 1949–76. The “law of value debate” in 1979, which “resolved” a long-standing set of issues concerning national accounting, planning, and accumulation, is found to be—despite its apparently Marxist character, derivation, and vocabulary—the passage through which a capitalist developmental logic was reintroduced into Chinese governing, with significant consequences. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions Duke University Press

From the Law of Value Debate to the One-Child Policy in China: On Accounting and Biopolitics

Thompson, Malcolm
positions , Volume 30 (1) – Feb 1, 2022
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Copyright
Copyright 2022 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-9417929
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Abstract

This article argues that the origins of the one-child policy beginning in 1980 in China, and its development into the current system of “comprehensive population management,” are to be found not in any unfolding of a statist or authoritarian logic, or within the parameters of a nominally “socialist” project, but rather in a return to a properly capitalist set of concerns and governmental techniques, the first iteration of which can be traced to the 1920s and 1930s. With regard to the broad set of economic reforms launched in the period 1979–81, it is argued that the one-child policy is absolutely continuous with other reforms across economic sectors (agricultural responsibility systems and urban enterprise reforms) and discontinuous with anything we might understand as population management in the period 1949–76. The “law of value debate” in 1979, which “resolved” a long-standing set of issues concerning national accounting, planning, and accumulation, is found to be—despite its apparently Marxist character, derivation, and vocabulary—the passage through which a capitalist developmental logic was reintroduced into Chinese governing, with significant consequences.

Journal

positions – Duke University Press

Published: Feb 1, 2022

References

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    Andres, Joel
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    Chan, Kam Wing Zhang, Li
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    Chen, Hansheng
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    Cheng, Tiejun Selden, Mark
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    Hinton, Harold C.
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    Dalsimer, Marlyn Nisonoff, Laurie
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    Dong, Fureng
  • System of National Accounts, 2008
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    Feng, Hefa
  • Editor's Introduction
    Fung, K. K. Fung, K. K.
  • Population Studies in China: Privileged Past, Anxious Future
    Greenhalgh, Susan
  • Shilun shehuizhuyi zhidu xia de shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü
    Gu, Zhun
  • The Hukou System and China's Rural Development
    Han, Dongping
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    Jackson, Sukhan
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    Jiang, Xuemo
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    Lin, Cyril Chihren
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    Nan, Bing Zhen, Suo
  • Renkou lilun zuotanhui jieshao
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    Rofel, Lisa Dirlik, Arif Meisner, Maurice
  • Renkou fazhan wenti de dingliang yanjiu
    Song, Jian Guangyuan, Li
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  • Yao quanmian tihui Mao zhuxi guanyu jiazhi guilü wenti de lunshu
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  • Guangyu jiazhi guilü de neiyin lun yu weiyin lun
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  • Shenme shi shengchanli yiji guanyu shengchanli dingyi wenti de ji ge zhenglun
    Sun, Yefang
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  • Demography in China: From Zero to Now
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    Xu, Xianchun
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    Xue, Muqiao
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    Xue, Muqiao
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    Yee, Rita Kwok Hoi
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    Zhang, Lizhong
  • Jiazhi guilü zai woguo guodu shiqi de zuoyong
    Zhu, Jiannong
  • Guanyu shehuizhuyi zhidu xia de shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü
    Zhu, Jiannong
  • Shilun jiazhi guilü zai shehuizhuyi zhong de zhiyue zuoyong
    Zhu, Jiannong
  • A Shanghai Model? On Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics
    Andres, Joel
  • The Hukou System and Rural-Urban Migration in China: Processes and Changes
    Chan, Kam Wing Zhang, Li
  • Guangdong de nongcun shengchan guanxi yu shengchanli
    Chen, Hansheng
  • The Origins and Social Consequences of China's Hukou System
    Cheng, Tiejun Selden, Mark
  • Sorghum and Steel: The Socialist Developmental Regime and the Forging of China
  • Red Dust: The Capitalist Transition in China
  • Communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee
    Hinton, Harold C.
  • The Implications of the New Agricultural and One-Child Family Policies for Rural Chinese Women
    Dalsimer, Marlyn Nisonoff, Laurie
  • Jiazhi guilü shi yige weida de xuexiao: Jinian Mao Zedong tongzhi danchen jiu-shi zhounian
    Dong, Fureng
  • System of National Accounts, 2008
  • Zhongguo nongcun de guosheng laodongli: Zhongguo nongcun renkou guosheng lun de pipan
    Feng, Hefa
  • Editor's Introduction
    Fung, K. K. Fung, K. K.
  • Population Studies in China: Privileged Past, Anxious Future
    Greenhalgh, Susan
  • Shilun shehuizhuyi zhidu xia de shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü
    Gu, Zhun
  • The Hukou System and China's Rural Development
    Han, Dongping
  • Profit Sharing, State Revenue, and Enterprise Performance in the PRC
    Jackson, Sukhan
  • Guanyu jiazhi guilü dui shehuizhuyi shengchan de ‘yingxiang’ zuoyong he ‘tiaojia’ zuoyong
    Jiang, Xuemo
  • The Reinstatement of Economics in China Today
    Lin, Cyril Chihren
  • On New Democracy
  • Zunzhong keguan jingji guilü, yong jingji banfa guanli jingji: Zhongguo shehui kexue yuan he benken bianji bu jixu zhaokai zuotanhui
  • Lun shehuizhuyi zhidu xia shengchan ziliao de jiazhi he jiazhi guilü de zuoyong wenti
    Nan, Bing Zhen, Suo
  • Renkou lilun zuotanhui jieshao
  • Hegemony and Productivity: Workers in Post-Mao China
    Rofel, Lisa Dirlik, Arif Meisner, Maurice
  • Renkou fazhan wenti de dingliang yanjiu
    Song, Jian Guangyuan, Li
  • Ba jihua he tongji fang zai jiazhi guilü de jichu shang
    Sun, Yefang
  • Yao quanmian tihui Mao zhuxi guanyu jiazhi guilü wenti de lunshu
    Sun, Yefang
  • Guangyu jiazhi guilü de neiyin lun yu weiyin lun
    Sun, Yefang
  • Shenme shi shengchanli yiji guanyu shengchanli dingyi wenti de ji ge zhenglun
    Sun, Yefang
  • Living Capital (Shengming Ziben), Vital Statistics, and National Economics in China, 1912–1937
    Thompson, Malcolm
  • Demography in China: From Zero to Now
    Tien, H. Yuan
  • Guanyu xianjieduan de shangpin jingji yu jiazhi guilü
    Wang, Xuewen
  • Shehuizhuyi zhidu xia de shangpin guanxi yu jiazhi guilü
    Wang, Xuewen
  • Woguo fazhan guomin jingji de di yi ge wu-nian jihua yu guodu shiqi de jingji guilü
    Wang, Ya'nan
  • Lun guomin jingji you jihua fazhan guilü zai woguo guodu shiqi de zuoyong
    Xu, Dixin
  • Lun nongcun renmin gongshehua hou de shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü
    Xu, Dixin
  • Youguan yunyong jiazhi guilü de jige wenti
    Xu, Dixin
  • Zai woguo tiaojian xia jiazhi guilü de zuoyong wenti
    Xu, Dixin Jiaju, Qian Datong, Guan
  • The Establishment, Reform, and Development of China's System of National Accounts
    Xu, Xianchun
  • Dui shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü wenti de yi xie yijian
    Xue, Muqiao
  • Yanjiu he yunyong shehuizhuyi jingji fazhan de gekuan guilü
    Xue, Muqiao
  • Guanyu jiazhi guilü zuoyong wenti taolunhui kaimuci
    Xue, Muqiao
  • Impact of Reforms on the Labor System in China
    Yee, Rita Kwok Hoi
  • Makesi, Engesi shi zenyang pipan Ma'ersasi renkou lun de, jian lun women jinhou de renkou yanjiu gongzuo
    Zhang, Lizhong
  • Jiazhi guilü zai woguo guodu shiqi de zuoyong
    Zhu, Jiannong
  • Guanyu shehuizhuyi zhidu xia de shangpin shengchan he jiazhi guilü
    Zhu, Jiannong
  • Shilun jiazhi guilü zai shehuizhuyi zhong de zhiyue zuoyong
    Zhu, Jiannong