Top

Published in:

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

5. The Third Phase: Self-criticism

Author : Pervez Tahir

Published in: Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Joan Robinson had the time to rethink her thoughts on China in the light of greater information. She admitted that she had no special knowledge of China. During her visits, she was dependent on interpreters and the preferences of those showing her around. However, she thought it was her duty to balance the hostile view of China spread in the world by the China-watchers. What happened during the decade beginning 1966 was described as “a medieval drama of ambition and treachery”. On the whole, Joan Robinson was able to accept the major part of the post-Mao reform because she had had no serious problems with the rightist economic policies and management even in the past. The problem was not so much with the capitalist road as with Confucian respect for hierarchy. As the two were considered one in the cultural revolution and violently attacked, the self-criticism seems incomplete.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter The Second Phase: A “Starry-eyed” Joan Robinson

next chapter Concluding Observations

Robinson (1976a, 92).

Her uneasiness seems to have started with the news of the Lin Piao affair. Writing now for the Spectator, she conceded: “Knowing the language, of course, is an enormous benefit to the traveller, but it does not make very much difference to what he is able to report, for everyone he comes across is exceedingly discreet with a foreigner. For instance, soon after the death of Lin Piao, there was no one in China who had not heard of the official explanation of what had happened, but the resident foreigners never could get a word about it from their Chinese colleagues and friends” (Robinson, 1972, 321) But see also Robinson (1975b, 217), where she disputes the suggestion that, contrary to the official story, Lin had no ultra-left links.

Robinson (1954, 1975a).

Robinson (1954) and Robinson and Adler (1958).

There was no change in her view of the North Korean “economic miracle”. See Robinson (1976a, 92, 1977b).

Watson’s description of the book as a “superficial survey” had invited a sharp reaction from her. See Watson (1969, 164, 1970) and Robinson (1970, 4).

Beitelheim (1974).

See Robinson (1964c).

Ironically, Han Suyin’s review of The Cultural Revolution had noted: “She shows that a personal struggle for succession such as followed the passing of Lenin and Stalin is being made impossible by the Cultural Revolution” (1969, last page).

This Joan Robinson was different from the one who, during the euphoria of the cultural revolution, had advised Samuelson “pointedly that it would be good for sedentary professors to lead a more active life in countryside”. See Feiwel (1989, 136). Later she also talked of “the dreadful story of obscurantist persecution of scientists, which destroyed much valuable work and ruined many valuable lives” (Robinson, 1980, last page).

Griffin and Gurley (1985, 1135) note that Joan Robinson “questioned most of Bettelheim’s interpretations of new policies, alleging either that the policies are not really new or that they are not incompatible with the pursuit of socialism”.

According to one reviewer, Joan Robinson’s “pro-Chinese bias is prevalent throughout the book sometimes even at the cost of objectivity” (Dhesi, 1981, 668). Bruton (1981, 195) accused her “of resolving all puzzles with a call for rational planning or a reference to China”. Bronfenbrenner (1980, 1582) remarked that it was written “with one eye cocked on China”. Helleiner was dismissive: “One cannot honestly recommend it—not even to intelligent radical friends” (1980, 517).

See Ch’en (1969).

See Nolan (1983a, b, 1988).

In the days of cultural revolutionary fervour, Joan Robinson did not think that the Chinese “suffer from not waving their flag of national income” (Robinson, 1968, 691–2).

In fact, the growth of inputs had been rapid. However, for the growth of output, “the system needed a lot of capital” (Nolan, 1988, 54).

According to White (1989): “[W]hat must have exacerbated the conflict [during the cultural revolution] was that in China the economic pie had to be tranched in such small wedges.”

After noting that Joan Robinson “was never the one to accept being told what to believe”, one obituary went as far as to claim that disillusionment with China may have been a cause of her death: “Joan Robinson was undoubtedly shaken by discovering that she had failed, like everyone else, to understand that China, even in a cultural revolution, presents a carefully laundered face to foreigners, however friendly. It was thus possible for the enemies of China and of socialism to criticise Joan Robinson’s work for SACU in a way that she found difficult to refute. This surely depressed her and is likely to have been a cause of the severe stroke that effectively killed her” (Hart, 1983, 27).

She now knew more: “Too much broke loose in the process and there was conflict, even with guns, in many places” (Robinson, 1980, last page). For an interesting explanation of the causes of violence during the cultural revolution, see White (1989).

A commentator had wondered: “Her account makes a very seductive reading, for the picture it presents of the Chinese economy is one of remarkable harmony.” See China Quarterly (1973, 799).

Raj (1983, 73) also takes the view that the communes permitted large-scale investment in agriculture. The impact of the post-Mao price incentives has to be seen in the perspective of the constraints relaxed by this investment. According to Lardy (1988, 256), per capita farm private investment in 1983 was less than its level during the period before the formation of cooperatives.

Earlier she had noted during the cultural revolution “a parallel movement to save the health of the terrain by afforestation and conservation, carried out by the same means of mass mobilisation as the campaign for healthy humanity” (Robinson, 1980, last page).

On the significance of the rural-urban issue, see Nolan (1979) and Nolan and White (1984).

Adelman, I. and D. Sunding. (1989) ‘Joan Robinson as a Development Economist,’ in G.R. Feiwel (ed.), Joan Robinson and Modern Economic Theory, 702–22. London: Macmillan.CrossRef

Beitelheim, C. (1974) Cultural Revolution and Industrial Organisation in China. New York: Monthly Review Press.

———. (1978a) ‘Letter of Resignation to the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association,’ Monthly Review, 30, 9–13.

———. (1978b) ‘The Great Leap Backward,’ Monthly Review, 30, 37–130.CrossRef

Braverman, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.CrossRef

Bronfenbrenner, M. (1980) ‘Review of Robinson (1979c),’ Journal of Economic Literature, 18, 1581–2.

Bruton, H.J. (1981) ‘Review of Robinson (1979b),’ Economic Development and Cultural Change, 30, 191–6.CrossRef

Ch’en, J. (1969) Mao. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

China Quarterly (1973) ‘Book Notes,’ 56, 798–9.

Dhesi, A.S. (1981) ‘Review of Robinson (1979c),’ Kyklos, 34, 668–70.

Feiwel, G.R. (ed.). (1989) Joan Robinson and Modern Economic Theory. London: Macmillan.

Griffin, K. and J. Gurley. (1985) ‘Radical Analyses of Imperialism, the Third World, and the Transition to Socialism: A Survey Article,’ Journal of Economic Literature, 23, 1089–143.

Han Suyin. (1969) Review of Robinson (1969a). Broadsheet, 6, last page.

Hart, A.T. (1983) ‘Joan Robinson: A Personal Note,’ China Now, 107, 27.

Helleiner, G.K. (1980) ‘Review of Robinson (1979b),’ Canadian Journal of Economics, 3, 515–7.CrossRef

Lardy, N.R. (1988) ‘Comments on Deng Fureng,’ in G. Ranis and T.P. Schultz (eds.), The State of Development Economics, 254–9. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Nolan, P. (1979) ‘Inequality of Income between Town and Countryside in the People’s Republic of China in the Mid-1950s,’ World Development, 7, 447–65.CrossRef

———. (1983a) ‘De-collectivisation of Agriculture in China, 1979–82: A Long-term Perspective,’ Economic and Political Weekly, 8(1395–1406), 1434–41.

———. (1983b) ‘De-collectivisation of Agriculture in China,’ Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7, 381–403.CrossRef

———. (1988) The Political Economy of Collective Farms: An Analysis of China’s Post-Mao Reform. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Nolan, P. and G. White. (1984) ‘Urban Bias, Rural Bias or State Bias? Urban-rural Relations in Post-revolutionary China,’ Journal of Development Studies, 20, 52–81.CrossRef

Raj, K.N. (1983) ‘Agricultural Growth in India and China,’ Economic and Political Weekly, 18, 69–75.

Robinson, Joan. (1949) ‘Theory of Planning,’ Review of M. Dobb. Soviet Economic Development Since 1917, Soviet Studies, 1, 60–4.

———. (1954) Letters from a Visitor to China. Cambridge: Students’ Bookshops.

———. (1964a) ‘Notes from China,’ Economic Weekly, 16, 195–203.

———. (1964b) ‘A British Economist on Chinese Communes,’ Eastern Horizon, 3, 6–11.

———. (1964c) ‘The Chinese Point of View,’ International Affairs, 40, 232–44.CrossRef

———. (1965) ‘What’s New in China?’ Eastern Horizon, 4, 11–5.

———. (1968) ‘China Today: Economic Organisation,’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 116, 683–93.

———. (1969) The Cultural Revolution in China. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.

———. (1970) ‘Reply to A.J. Watson,’ China Now, 2, 4.

———. (1972) ‘Through Western Spectacles,’ Reviews of K. Mehnert, China Today; Terrill (1972); and K. Ling, Red Guard, Spectator, 7522, 321.

———. (1973) Economic Management in China, 1972. London: Anglo-Chinese Educational Institute.

———. (1975a) ‘National Minorities in Yunnan,’ Eastern Horizon, 14, 32–43.

———. (1975b) ‘The Fall of Lin Piao.’ Review of P. Worsley, Inside China; K.S. Karol, The Second Chinese Evolution, Spectator, 7677, 217.

———. (1976a) ‘Review of J.K. Fairbank, et al.,’ East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society 76, 91–2.

———. (1976b) ‘An Eyewitness Account of the Cultural Revolution,’ Review of John and Elsie Collier, China’s Socialist Revolution, Monthly Review, 28, 50–1.CrossRef

———. (1977a) Reports from China, 1953–76. London: Anglo-Chinese Educational Institute.

———. (1977b) ‘Review of E. Brun and J. Hersh. Socialist Korea: A Case Study in the Strategy of Economic Development,’ Monthly Review 29, 60–2.

———. (1978a) ‘China 1978: Comments on Bettelheim,’ China Now, 80, 4–7.

———. (1978b) ‘Review of Mao Tse-tung (1977),’ China Now, 80, 26–7.

———. (1979a) Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

———. (1979b) ‘Review of MAO (1977),’ Monthly Review, 30, 52–3.CrossRef

———. (1979c) ‘The Pros and Cons,’ China Now, 86, 25–6.

———. (1980) Review of N. Maxwell (ed.) China’s Road to Development, Broadsheet, 17, last page.

———. (1981) Reprint of Robinson (1979b).

———. (1982) ‘Introduction,’ China Now, 100, 3.

Robinson, Joan and S. Adler. (1958) China: An Economic Perspective. London: Fabian International Bureau, Fabian Tract No. 314.

Robinson, Joan and J. Eatwell. (1973) An Introduction to Modern Economics. London: McGraw-Hill.

Watson, A.J. (1969) ‘Review of Robinson (1969a),’ China Quarterly, 40, 163–4.CrossRef

———. (1970) ‘The Cultural Revolution: Two Views,’ China Now, 2, 3–4.

White, L.T. (1989) Politics of Chaos: The Organisational Causes of Violence in China’s Cultural Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Title: The Third Phase: Self-criticism
Author: Pervez Tahir
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28824-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-28825-9

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28825-9_5