China

We’re the Global Development Institute at The University of Manchester: where critical thinking meets social justice. Each episode we will bring you the latest thinking, insights and debate in development studies.

Global Development Institute podcast

A spate of suicides leaves ten dead at the Shenzhen campus of Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturer that makes many of the world’s most popular consumer electronics. A rare strike paralyzes production at Honda Motors, shutting down all of the company’s manufacturing lines in the country. In response, both companies offer substantial concessions to workers, causing many to ask if this marks the end of China’s reign as the low-cost “workshop to the world”?

This week on Sinica, host Kaiser Kuo welcomes Kathleen McLaughlin, a prolific reporter for the Bureau of National Affairs and Global Post who has written extensively on electronics manufacturing trends in China. We’re also joined by Jonathan Watts, Beijing-based correspondent for the Guardian, who is just back from a visit to the massive Foxconn facility in Shenzhen. Also with us is Danwei founder Jeremy Goldkorn. We look at the problems afflicting labor in China: are these simply the result of poor working conditions, or is there more at work here?

Sinica Podcast: Suicides, Strikes and Labor Unrest in China

Professor David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute discusses his book, Should Rich Nations Help the Poor?
This podcast was recorded as part of the Global Development Institute Lecture Series.

Lecture: Should rich nations help the poor? - David Hulme

Lord Jim O'Neill spoke as part of the Rising Powers Conference held at The University of Manchester in June 2017.

24/07/2017

Lecture: Lord Jim O'Neill on are the Rising Powers are really rising? -

Dr Saleemul Huq from International Center for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka discusses the power of Least Developed Countries at UN climate talks.

25/07/2017

Lecture: Saleemul Huq on the least developed countries negotiating climate change

Professor Richard Heeks spoke as part of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission lecture series. The event was entitled Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) for Development.

Richard Heeks is Professor of Development Informatics in the Global Development Institute, at The University of Manchester. He is Director of the Centre for Development Informatics, which is also based at The University of Manchester.

01/08/2017

Lecture: Richard Heeks on from ICT4D to digital development

In this episode, Prof Diana Mitlin, Managing Director of GDI, and Dr Mercedes González de la Rocha, an anthropologist and sociologist at CIESAS and an alumna of the University of Manchester, discuss inequalities, clustered disadvantages, urban social isolation, why Mercedes loves Immanuel Wallerstein's definition of income. They also discuss Dr González de la Rocha’s research on poverty and vulnerability in Mexico, including the ten-year research project she led to evaluate the impact of Mexico's conditional cash transfer programme Oportunidades (now called Prospera).

In conversation: Poverty and vulnerability in Mexico Mercedes González de la Rocha & Diana Mitlin

Mary Gallagher is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies.

Professor Gallagher researches the relationships between capitalism, law and democracy, which she examines in her latest book, “Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers and the State” from Cambridge University Press. In addition, her research also focuses on the resilience of China's authoritarian system and the use of censorship by the Chinese state.

The "Harvard on China" podcast is hosted by James Evans at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Subscribe via SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, or other podcast providers.

ChinaPoliticsGovernmentCensorshipLawLaborLegalChinese PoliticsSocial SciencePolitical ScienceHarvardFairbank CenterMichigan

Law, Labor, and Online Censorship in China, with Mary Gallagher

Ghost cities full of empty apartment blocks are evidence of the central government’s failure to slow booming house construction in the People’s Republic of China.

Conflicting incentives for local government officials, and a lack of alternative investments in China, have meant even the toughest of restrictions haven’t been able to stop developers building ever more houses. 

The housing industry is a big part of China’s economy. Real estate accounts for one-sixth of its GDP, a quarter of total fixed asset investment, 14% of urban employment, and 20% of bank loans. 

Research done for the Asian Development Bank Institute finds that the central government has maintained a firm hand on the sector for the 20 years or so since widespread property ownership was first permitted. 

Xiaping Cao of Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University, Bihong Huang of the Asian Development Bank Institute, and Rose Neng Lai of the University of Macau argued such a policy loosens or tightens various control measures depending on whether the government wants more or less growth in the sector.

Read the transcript
https://bit.ly/2GXTvrb

Read the report
https://www.adb.org/publications/impact-exogenous-demand-shock-housing-market-evidence-prc

About the authors
Xiaping Cao is associate professor of finance at Lingnan College, Sun Yat-sen University.
Bihong Huang is a research fellow at the Asian Development Bank Institute.
Rose Neng Lai is a professor of finance at the University of Macau.

Know more about ADBI’s work on housing
https://www.adb.org/adbi/research/housing-policy
https://bit.ly/2seqsuK

Asia's Developing Future

Attempts to slow the People’s Republic of China’s housing construction expose other problems

Kaxton Siu recently visited the Global Development Institute to discuss his new forthcoming book 'Chinese Migrant Workers and Employer Domination: Comparisons with Hong Kong and Vietnam’. Kaxton Siu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.

This talk explores three major changes in the circumstances of the migrant working class in south China over the past three decades, from historical and comparative perspectives. It examines the rise of a male migrant working population in the export industries, a shift in material and social lives of migrant workers, and the emergence of a new non-coercive factory regime in the industries. Drawing on fieldwork regarding Hong Kong-invested garment factories in south China, Hong Kong and Vietnam, alongside factory-gate surveys in China and Vietnam, this talk examines how and why the circumstances of workers in these localities are dissimilar even when under the same type of factory ownership. In analyzing workers’ lives within and outside factories, and the expansion of global capitalism in East and Southeast Asia, the talk contributes to research on production politics and everyday life practice, and an understanding of how global and local forces interact.

Lecture: Kaxton Siu on Chinese migrant workers and employer domination

Strict controls meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus are affecting many of the country’s villages. Our correspondent visits migrant workers who are trapped and draining their savings. We look into why Boeing’s space-and-defence division, which used to prop up the commercial-aircraft side, is itself losing altitude. And why American politicians’ heights matter so much to their prospects.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here <a href="http://www.economist.com/radiooffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.economist.com/radiooffer</a> &#10;&nbsp; <hr>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.