eBook

China 2020

Santoro, Michael A

2009,2017,2011

Overview

Chinese society is plagued by many problems that have a direct impact on its current and future business and political environment-worker rights, product safety, Internet freedom, and the rule of law. Drawing on knowledge gained through personal interviews, documentary sources, and almost two decades of visits to China, Michael A. Santoro offers a clear-eyed view of the various internal forces-such as regionalism, corruption, and growing inequality-that will determine the direction and pace of economic, social, and political change. Of special interest is Santoro's assessment of the role of multinational corporations in fostering or undermining social and political progress. Santoro offers a fresh and innovative way of thinking about two questions that have preoccupied Western observers for decades. What will be the effect of economic reform and prosperity on political reform? How can companies operate with moral integrity and ethics in China? InChina 2020, Santoro unifies these hitherto separate questions and demonstrates that moral integrity (or lack of it) by Western business will have a profound impact on whether economic privatization and growth usher in greater democracy and respect for human rights. China 2020also offers a novel vision of China's future economic and political development. Santoro rejects the conventional view that China will muddle through the next decade with incremental social and political changes. Instead he argues that China will follow one or two widely divergent potential outcomes. It might continue to progress steadily toward greater prosperity, democracy, and respect for human rights, but it is also highly likely that China will instead fall backward economically and into an ever more authoritarian regime. The next decade will be one of the most important in the history of China, and, owing to China's global impact, the history of the modern world. China 2020describes various tectonic social and political battles going on within China. The outcomes of these struggles will depend on a number of powerful indigenous forces as well as the decisions and actions of individual Chinese citizens. Santoro strongly believes that Western businesses can-and should-influence these developments.

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Subject: 21st century / ASIAN STUDIES / Attention / Business / BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Business Ethics / Business Ethics / Business ethics -- China / China / China (People's Republic) / China -- Commercial policy / China -- Foreign economic relations / China -- Politics and government -- 21st century / China -- Social conditions -- 21st century / Commercial policy / Corruption / East and West / Economic relations / Foreign direct investment / Foreign economic relations / Human Rights / Human rights -- China / Influence (Psychology) / International business enterprises / International business enterprises -- China / International economic relations / Investments, Foreign / Investments, Foreign -- China / LABOR HISTORY / Liberty / Multinational enterprises / Persuasion (Psychology) / Political change / POLITICAL SCIENCE / POLITICAL SCIENCE & POLITICAL HISTORY / Politics and government / Privatization / Product safety / Rule of law / Social change / Social change -- China -- 21st century / Social conditions / Social influence / Social responsibility of business / Social responsibility of business -- China / Working conditions
• ISBN: 9780801446955, 0801446953, 9780801459238, 0801459230