Jonathon P Sine @JonathonPSine Twitter profile

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Jonathon P Sine

7 months

LGFVs are core to the story of China's economic development, and now central to many of the countries biggest challenges. To scratch my own curiosity about them, and in hopes of adding texture to today's headlines, I explore the history of their rise and (potential) fall.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

My favorite behavioral experiment covered in The WEIRDest People in the World: “You are riding in a car driven by a close friend. He hits a pedestrian. You know that he was going at least 35 mph in an area of the city where the maximum allowed speed is 20 mph. There are no

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

“The Rise and Fall of Imperial China” by Yuhua Wang is a grand feat of a book. It covers an immense amount of history, undertakes extensive empirical work, and develops a powerful explanatory theory of state development.. But I have a fairly critical review of parts 🧵

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

An unconventional approach to measuring the impact of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign: "We find that the anti-corruption campaign significantly decreased the BMI and overweight rates of pubic sector employees."

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

The year 2022, in books! My top ten: #1 - The Old Regime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville Maybe the best book I've ever read. Brimming with insight on the human condition, in effortlessly elegant prose. I see why Wang Qishan made it mandatory Politburo reading.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

via

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 months

In 1988, a Soviet specialist read all 87 PhD dissertations from 1976 to 1987 that focused on Soviet domestic politics. The results were troubling. Only 17 conducted any research in the USSR at all, and 1/5 used no foreign language sources.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

What Cook says in the video is at best a half truth. Yes China does have a big semi-skilled labor force capable of working with precision tooling, but pointing to the vocational system explains almost none of the current situation. China does not have a good vocational school

S.L. Kanthan

@Kanthan2030

1 year

Apple CEO Tim Cook on "low manufacturing wage" in China: "The popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor costs. I'm not sure what part of China they go to, but the China stopped being the low labor cost country years ago. That is not the reason

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

Collapse by Vladislav Zubok (2021) is a biased book. Its bias, however, is its strength: wishing things could have gone differently, the author excavates the USSR’s collapse more critically than many western accounts (which oft suffer from precisely the inverse bias).

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

This Thanksgiving, here's something to be thankful for: The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama. Despite being one of the most debated books of the last half century, few have actually read it! A shame, considering it’s one of the great books of our time.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

One of the most interesting things I've read on the Party's analysis of the CPSU's collapse. It's very edgy, directly attacking the most popular narratives that have taken hold in the PRC. This is an excellent find by CSIS' translation team.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

What's the best book you've read over the last five years? Reflecting on this question, here is my selection: Escape from Rome. The most comprehensive, detailed, and convincing argument for why the industrial revolution occurred--and only could have occurred--in Western Europe.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

Why was China’s “post-communist” transition relatively successful, esp. compared to Russia? Interesting discussion in this book of “partial reform trap” + refusal of Party to fully privatize, but a big difference, not mentioned, was there was a LOT less to privatize.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

Understanding China's bureaucracy, its strengths, weaknesses, and peculiarities, is important. The ambitions of China's leadership runs in large part through bureaucratic facilitation, implementation & actualization. Here's a thread of resources. Pls comment more suggestions!

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

I went to Xiong’an (雄安新区) this weekend and, even with high expectations, was mind blown by the scope and scale of the state-led development process underway. Sharing photos Xinhua took 2-3 years ago because only aerial shots do justice

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

China's success in large part owes to local governments "experimenting under hierarchy." Xi's centralization, many argue, is upending that model. But analysis of ~5,000 central directives finds language promoting experimentation is more commonplace under Xi than ever before:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

One of the funnier defects of Soviet central planning was called "storming" wherein enterprises systematically acted like students pulling all-nighters the night before their final paper. Only they did it every month to meet plan quotas, and it severely impacted product quality

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 months

In 2014 a group of researchers decided to test the "quality of government" in 159 countries by sending ten undeliverable letters to each one and measuring the return rate. Here's how that went:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

Five recent pieces of research looking at the constellation of issues around China's apparent productivity slowdown & underlying causes: Picking Losers: How Career Incentives Undermine Industrial Policy in Chinese Cities (2022) - David Bulman, Xun Yan, and Qiong Zhang

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

The underlying study was conducted by Fons Trompenaars and Charles HampdenTurner with data that's about two decades old now. Marketization may be a major spur to impersonality disposition, and am curious how that's changed in the intervening period.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

A very important issue lost or ignored in most narratives of China's economic policy: how heavily the Party-state has begun cultivating high-tech SMEs. The PRC wants to combine state guidance with market forces identify specialized SMEs and then fast-track their growth:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

Simon Leys on Mao's writing and philosophy

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

Authoritarian regimes are unstable. But a certain type is not: those that arose via social revolution. The latter on average survive ~three times as long.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

8 months

Spent time on the outskirts of Zhengzhou, around the largest iPhone assembly plant in the world (Foxconn’s). Was surprised seeing this beside the factory complex (and right next to Zhengzhou intl airport). Most workers stay in nearby 8 bed dorms, but heard some live here.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

10 months

Apropos apologizing, when Japan's PM Tanaka visited China in 1972, he "tried to apologize for his country's invasion of China." Mao, however, is said to have "assured him that it was the 'help' of the Japanese invasion that made the communist victory and this visit...possible."

Donald Clarke

@donaldcclarke

10 months

Mao to a Japanese delegation in 1955: "There is no point in calling you guys to account for past debts. You have already apologized. You can't apologize every day now, can you? It isn't good for a nation to keep whining all the time. This is something we understand quite well.”

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

In “Against the Grain” James C Scott portrays himself as a maverick on a mission. The book is insightful and often captivating. Depending on your priors, it may be a radical reframe. But in truth, I’m not sure how novel the mission is..🧵

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 months

"While several of the theses made for excellent reading," he wrote retrospectively, "the overall effect was to remind one of Bismarck's comment that there are certain things, such as sausages and legislation, whose creation should not be studied too closely."

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

A series of documentaries on the fall of the Soviet Union by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences offer insights into the minds of Party ideologues. History is a battleground. "Historical nihilism" is the enemy. Xi and his Party, the protagonists.

The Cold Wind of Historical Nihilism

Lessons from Chinese Communist Party documentaries on the fall of the Soviet Union

www.cogitations.co

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

"What determines success in industrial policy is not the ability to pick winners, but the capacity to let the losers go." – Dani Rodrik

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

What distinguishes developmental states from others is not the existence of intervention but elite consensus around a developmentalist ambition, as well as existence of institutional capacities that help translate ambition into policy outcomes.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

8 months

Super fascinating paper on evolution of China's anti-corruption system.. Don't know how she swung it but one of the co-authors actually managed to become an assistant chief procurator in a city district gov for 7 months in 2017! Then wrote up lessons learned in China Quarterly.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

10 months

The politics of personnel is central to a regime's power. New research looks at how China's post-Mao leaders instigated a bureaucratic-personnel transformation, presaging reform and opening. But why were Mao-era elite dethroned? Look to Mao and Stalin's clashing track record🧵

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 years

@CoreyMetzker @AndrewYang Thank you for sharing, thank you for service, and thank you for still being here! #humanityfirst

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

Here's some fascinating new research on China's education system. A team of researchers examined job preferences among college graduates in China, with a focus on those who attended elite institutions.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

@robkhenderson Be wary of those who really like Rousseau

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 months

Three of every four Soviet metal smelting plants had their own herds of cows by 1987, and the Presidium wanted to know what was wrong with the rest. Retail trade & commerce channeled via enterprises acting as self-supporting feudal estates.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

It is a long and comprehensive post, and no offense will be taken should the reader choose to treat it as a source for reference material. Efforts were made, however, to make it an enjoyable read.

The Rise and Fall of LGFVs

Part 1: How China's local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) became China's most complex economic challenge.

www.cogitations.co

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

I was expecting a massive crowd of glycine girlies at the gate and nearly missed the entrance to Donghua Jinlong, the world's greatest glycine producer.

Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

I’ll be in 石家庄 this weekend to see if this library is half as cool as the photos, and to travel nearby. If anyone happens to be there send a DM!

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

On the infrastructural power of Chinese dynasties: If coercive and despotic power is the only yardstick of state power, the Ming appears stronger than the Song. But focus on state capacity to collect and distribute tax revenue to run a “professional” society, it's the reverse.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

@litcapital Being seated confers temporary immunity

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

10 months

Personal update: I’m in Beijing at 清华大学 for at least the next six months. I’ll also be traveling around via HSR frequently. If any of you are nearby it would be great to meet up and chat over tea or coffee!

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

”Producer power” is fundamental to national strength and prosperity. A view long understood and only recently forgotten (and only in some places). Such was the belief of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, Friedrich List, and of countless others across the globe.

Lei Gong

@gonglei89

11 months

Looking back I wrote ssooo much on this topic this year. Really anchored for me what a useful and *vital* framework analysis of producer power is for both global political economy and economic development.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 years

@nntaleb @clairlemon You write pretty good and insightful books, but the chip you carry on your shoulder (normally directed at academics or financiers you think belittle you) blinds you with a sense of undeserved righteousness that leads you to act like a petulant child. That said, I enjoy it.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 months

Stalin on meeting Lenin: "I expected to see the mountain eagle of our party, a great man, not only politically but physically… What was my disappointment when I saw the most ordinary individual, below average height, distinguished from ordinary mortals by, literally, nothing.”

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

Imagine publishing a 3-volume, 1200 page overview of the Soviet economic system, then the whole thing dissolves 10 days later?

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

This Kotkin interview has some hot, hot takes... "So I’m in love with the Cold War. I’m in favor of the Cold War. The Cold War is not only a good thing — it’s a necessary thing, because we have to uphold...the terms of the way we share the planet."

Kotkin on China: Communism’s Achilles’ Heel, Deterrence, and Learning from the USSR

“You can’t be half Communist, just like you can’t be half pregnant.”

www.chinatalk.media

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

Criminally under-utilized resource providing most systematic overview of China's fiscal system I've seen. A lot of data, long time horizon (1970s-present), and very in the weeds. Currently open access, authored by Peking's Lin Shuanglin. No english cites yet?

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

@whyvert The big problem with the original study wrt China is email use there is much less prevalant.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 months

For those who liked Zubok's Collapse, I highly recommend Jerry F. Hough's Democratization and Revolution. Written almost 30 years ago but for my money still the most insightful book on the fall I've seen. Rich in data, as well as theory and analysis.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

Interpreting “profound changes unseen in a century,” economist Justin Lin explains to Chinese officials that the unequal development of China’s leading Eastern regions (400 mil) is interconnected with their role as vanguard in global competition against the U.S.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 month

"China cannot grow out of its debt problems as nominal GDP growth (even within the official data) has been slower than the aggregate interest on credit within the economy since 2012 (Figure 7). Time cannot heal these wounds, as time is opening them further."

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

@ShantMM Private equity giants Blackstone, Carlyle Group, and KKR also preparing to mandate extensive anti-racism training for their lobbying arms to ensure tax dodging and legislative capture is done in a race neutral way.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Despite the odds (i.e. highly limited on the ground access) 2022 still produced some fascinating scholarship on China’s economy and governance. Thread 🧵of articles published in 2022 that made an impression! I've missed a lot, so please comment/send me some of your favorites!

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

Interesting claim from Keyu Jin in "The New China Playbook." Between 1998-2007 foreign manufacturing companies were the most subsidized type of firm in China, on average getting multiples more than SOEs.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

"Embedded" Power by Lan Xiaohuan (兰小欢) analyzes the Party-state's role in China's economic development. Insightful perspective and extremely useful sourcing. Merely translating some quotes as I read.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

A coherent network of national elites will be in favor of strengthening the state. A dispersed and highly localized elite social network, on the other hand, would rather hollow out the state—and perhaps disembowel it entirely.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

@aaronsibarium In 'Conscientisation' Paolo Freire went so far as to call 'China's Cultural Revolution' the 'most genial solution of the century' to the problem of superstructural change. He wrote this in mid-1974, meaning he knew full well what the CR entailed.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

8 months

It’s funny how things get memory holed isn’t it? Barry Naughton in 2013 had a biting review of Hu and Wen’s economic policy and argued Xi was a reformer about to decisively break from their statist turn.

Ho-fung Hung

@hofunghung

8 months

🇨🇳's statist turn started with Hu. back then Bo Xilai was seen as the hyper-statist and Xi as the econ liberal. now Xi looks more like Bo. //Xi Jinping is faithfully implementing the policies of his predecessors, historian Frank Dikötter says.//

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

The primary thesis of the book is this: the rise and fall of not just imperial China, but the cause of state development broadly, is to be found in the characteristics of elite social networks and their relationship to the state.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

3 years

What makes the suffering innate to human existence bearable? What can valorize the innate human desire to struggle for something greater than oneself? What gives life meaning? And why are these questions being raised in a post on common prosperity ?

Groping the Elephant of Common Prosperity

Common Prosperity is about Common Purpose

www.cogitations.co

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

In his 2019 post "A Study Guide for Human Society," @Scholars_Stage argues that if your foray into the study of such a grand inquiry starts with big history books like Guns, Germs, and Steel, "you are doing it wrong." I will beg to differ. A🧵on reading.

A Study Guide for Human Society, Part I

Image sourceខ្មាសល្ងងទើបចេះ ខ្មាសក្រទើបមាន Shame of ignorance leads to knowledge; shame of poverty leads to wealth. —Khmer ProverbEarlier this week I was grousing on twitter about bo…

scholars-stage.org

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

China is uniquely decentralized when it comes to its fiscal system, heavily burdening local governments..a fact that’s often repeated but not effectively conveyed. This chart provided a very useful comparison of expenditure authorities across countries:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Dr. Zhen Wang throws a lot of (useful and informative) shade on research into the Party's incentive systems 1) Nomenklatura 2) Cadre Evaluation 3) Bianzhi (编制） 4) Party School training

The Elusive Pursuit of Incentive Systems: Research on the Cadre Management Regime in Post-Mao China

Journal of Chinese Political Science - This essay reviews recent scholarship on four key components of the post-Mao party state’s cadre management regime—nomenklatura system, cadre...

link.springer.com

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Across China's dynastic history, emperors have faced what the book terms the “sovereign’s dilemma.” The dilemma is this: a coherent network of national elites allow the sovereign to strengthen the state, but that same elite network facilitates threats to his rule & even his life.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

One must always be on guard against the fact that it is just so easy to weave a narrative, good or bad, about China (or any other complex issue, really). Here are some things I could say about 石家庄 for instance: extravagant but under utilized Evergrande apartment blocks

T. Greer

@Scholars_Stage

6 months

I think the difficulty with this is that China is not a country where “women, elderly, and the youth thrive” more than in other countries. The Chinese equivalents to twitter are consumed by a never ending discussions of just how terrible life is for Chinese children (both the

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

Fukuyama airs critiques from both the left and the right. If one were to read but a single portion of the book, I would make it this discussion. If more people read just this portion, critiques of the book would improve drastically.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

Etienne Balasz has unfortunately, it seems, been largely forgotten in today's scholarship and reading lists. But this collection of his essays put out in 1964, a year after his untimely death, is enthralling. A rare depth and breadth of insight. A pleasure to read.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Excellent insight: "The ambiguity of rules and the lack of an external enforcer define Leninist regimes. The similarities with the international system, where laws are equivocal and no world government is present to enforce them, are therefore unmistakable." - @JosephTorigian

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 years

@RobinSchulberg @Yascha_Mounk What's a few tens of millions lost for the greater proletarian revolution, right brother?

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 years

@robkhenderson Another great story: the time Mao humiliated Khrushchev by making him swim... apparently in floaties

Khrushchev in Water Wings: On Mao, Humiliation and the Sino-Soviet Split

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

The book is one in the tradition of “big history” books, striving to leverage history so as to develop a comprehensive theory that makes sense of a big chunk of the world. In this case how state's develop.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

I begins with the data story. Today there are nearly 12,000 LGFVs, of which ~3,000 release financials. Whether one looks at income statements (EBITDA & interest coverage ratio), cash flows, or ROA (1%) vs cost of capital (5%), their aggregate financial situation is very bad.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Most important to the author's mission: marriage and kinship networks. This book provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date data analysis of the localization over time of elite social networks in imperial China.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

@whyvert I'm far from engaged on this issue, but it raises an eyebrow whenever international critiques are so diametrically opposed to apparent local support. Makes me wonder if there's a quasi inverse Seeing Like A State issue here: only state interventions come in for heavy scrutiny.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

China's largest employers fascinating graphic via @thewirechina & @eliotcxchen

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 years

@libijian2 "academics in China are never subject to domestic restrictions on their research and studies. The only sanction, bans and mistreatment imposed on them are from Western countries" ....riiiight

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

But first, to highlight the best part by far of this great book: the richness of the data and the empirical research that went into this project. Each and every substantive chapter is backed up with detailed empirical data painstakingly compiled..so fun to see all of it.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Some thoughts on reading retention. You’re going to forget most of what you read—if you only read it once. The only effective method I’ve found for better retention: spaced repetition. Read the book, review it again a few days after you finish, a month after, and a year after.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

6 months

Entrepreneurs are always with us, seeking wealth and prestige in its various guises. What matters is how a society's entrepreneurial energies are funneled. Economist William Baumol wrote about this in one of the most cited papers in the social sciences:

Glenn

@GlennLuk

6 months

In the essay, I wrote about how every country has ample entrepreneurial energy. It is just a matter of how you organize society and incentives to tap into it most efficiently. Getting people to work in ways that are beneficial to both them and society is the secret trick.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

11 months

This line of inquiry gives rise to what is easily my favorite passage in the book:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

#3 (tie) - Prestige, Manipulation and Coercion by Joseph Torigian In my view one of the best books on China in the last few decades. Not only a brilliant analysis of Leninist regimes, but the deep dive research up-ends some fundamental views on 改革开放

Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Excellent insight: "The ambiguity of rules and the lack of an external enforcer define Leninist regimes. The similarities with the international system, where laws are equivocal and no world government is present to enforce them, are therefore unmistakable." - @JosephTorigian

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 years

@Noahpinion And US science spending is also driven by strangulation related suicides

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

#2 - Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott State's strive to create easily administrable, legible conditions ("statistics" derives from "state"), but when conjoined to an authoritarian state pursuing a "high modernist" ideology, as Scott vividly argues, tragedies unfurl.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Wang's argument is that increasingly localized kinship and marriage clearly demonstrates the change in elite network structure from star to bow-tie. The importance of social/family structure in determining social development draws on work from Avner Grief and Joseph Henrich.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

China is ~30% of revenue across key players in the semiconductor ecosystem. Don't think many people realize for certain firms like Qualcomm it's +60%.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 years

@Dalzell60 Not a good take, sir. With all due respect, the Communist Party is a thuggish authoritarian regime (if not precisely a dictatorship) that disregards, tramples, and intends to undermine individual liberty and values America & HKers hold dear. Cruz is fairly amplifying that msg.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Critically, the Qing was *never* able to undertake a cadastral survey across its entire 250 year history! Such a survey provides a map of the land...fundamental to acquiring the legibility necessary to undertake basic state functions (recall Scott's work).

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

The study of the Chinese policy process has been under-theorized. Popular academic frameworks like "fragmented authoritarianism" are not the best for understanding today's "top-level design" paradigm. "Political Steering" is a better framework.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

1 year

A conservative American philosopher may have effectively introduced "historical nihilism" into PRC leaders' lexicon. Allan Bloom -> Wang Huning -> Xi Jinping Elizabeth Perry explains:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

a star shaped network during the Tang dynasty at the twilight of China’s early dynastic period (600-900 AD) -- this networks exists when the elite are interconnected more nationally than locally, and strongly enmeshed into the central state governing apparatus:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

According to IMF estimates, based on the subset of LGFVs with available financials, debt has just about unceasingly surged from 13.4% of GDP in 2013 to 48.1%. But this leaves out the other ~9000 LGFVs. My guesstimate of a realistic lower bound for LGFV debt is ~60% of GDP.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

7 months

The study is not only interesting in that it undertakes large scale analysis of 5,000 central directives. But also useful in its effort to advance knowledge about how to classify and think about PRC documents.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

4 years

@WentaoZhai Most PRC students I know are fairly insulated, tending to congregate amongst themselves. Not sure how many actually come here with the idea of being 'cultural ambassadors.' I imagine it's a pretty small segment of the whole.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

“Averting a Great Divergence” by Peer Vries, the first stop on the voyage into Japan’s industrialization and the co-evolution of state and economy in the process! Key take aways 🧵

Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Folks familiar with Japan: what do you recommend as the best book(s) on the evolution of Japan’s political economy since the Meiji restoration?

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

Echoes of the past can be heard in today's appeals to a division between technocrats and political apparatchiks in the PRC. Perhaps today is different, but here is Stephen Kotkin's take on that line of reasoning in the regimes of Eastern Europe circa 1989:

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 months

One of the principal policies imposed on China and Japan by the imperial powers in the late 19th century was hamstringing their ability to implement tariffs, which for a time limited both nation's ability to industrialize. Japan eventually overcame that, at China's expense.

Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

5 months

Tariffs don’t generally work, they have just been used by every single successful industrializer ever. Reminder that pure free marketeering is the ahistorical belief system.

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

The importance of such a network recalls Mancur Olson’s theory of an “encompassing organization,” a coalition whose members "own so much of the society they have an important incentive to be actively concern about how productive it is."

The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities

www.amazon.com

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

#3 (tie) Chip War by Chris Miller Chris already authored one of my favorites-- The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy. I'm blown away again. Deeply researched, superbly structured, so many new factoids, even for those familiar w the space..Mao tried backyard-ing semiconductors?

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Jonathon P Sine

@JonathonPSine

2 years

The empirical data are used to substantiate both general narratives put forth by earlier scholars, as well as the author's own claims... tombstone epitaphs, kinship genealogies, exam records, official dynastic histories, and many databases are used to compile elite networks.

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