Headed by Tobias ten Brink, this project examines if and to what extent current socio-economic and political challenges are destabilizing China’s state-permeated economic model. In particular, it asks whether recent reforms initiated under the Xi Jinping government tend to undermine or sustain the model. In order to take account of interregional heterogeneity in the industrialized sectors of the Chinese economy, the research scope is not limited to aggregated national data. Three comparative case studies are conducted, which focus on industrial metropolises in the highly developed coastal province of Guangdong (here: Shenzhen), in the late-developing inland province of Hubei (here: Wuhan) and the structurally weak rustbelt province of Liaoning (here: Shenyang). The study expects new insights on the political and economic development of China as well as a more accurate understanding of the processes enabling institutional stabilization and of an incremental, path-dependent adaptation of models of capitalism. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and will start in Fall 2018. It will create one post-doctoral position at Jacobs University.
