Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- INTRODUCTION: On the Significance of Informal Politics
- PART I Informal Politics in Industrialized Asian Democracies
- PART II Dictatorship with Chinese Characteristics: Macroperspectives
- 4 Psychocultural Foundations of Informal Groups: The Issues of Loyalty, Sincerity, and Trust
- 5 Informal Politics Among the Chinese Communist Party Elite
- 6 Formal Structures, Informal Politics, and Political Change in China
- 7 The Informal Politics of Leadership Succession in Post-Mao China
- PART III Case Studies in Chinese Corporatism
- PART IV Asian Authoritarianism on the Chinese Periphery
- CONCLUSION: East Asian Informal Politics in Comparative Perspective
- Glossary
- Index
4 - Psychocultural Foundations of Informal Groups: The Issues of Loyalty, Sincerity, and Trust
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Contributors
- INTRODUCTION: On the Significance of Informal Politics
- PART I Informal Politics in Industrialized Asian Democracies
- PART II Dictatorship with Chinese Characteristics: Macroperspectives
- 4 Psychocultural Foundations of Informal Groups: The Issues of Loyalty, Sincerity, and Trust
- 5 Informal Politics Among the Chinese Communist Party Elite
- 6 Formal Structures, Informal Politics, and Political Change in China
- 7 The Informal Politics of Leadership Succession in Post-Mao China
- PART III Case Studies in Chinese Corporatism
- PART IV Asian Authoritarianism on the Chinese Periphery
- CONCLUSION: East Asian Informal Politics in Comparative Perspective
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
While I was ensconced in writing the first draft of this paper, the Hong Kong business community was shaken by the news that Zhou Guanwu, aged 77, head of Shougang, China's largest and most powerful state-owned steel manufacturer, had been forced into retirement and that, the following day, his son, Zhou Beifang, head of a Hong Kong–based holding company of this enterprise, was under arrest and investigation in Beijing for his possible connection to serious economic crimes. Zhou Guanwu was reported to be close to Deng Xiaoping, a relationship that became manifest when Deng visited the company in 1992, a gesture of approval for the company's adherence to Deng's policies. Since then, Shougang obtained exclusive rights to launch businesses bearing no direct connection to the production or marketing of steel. This special treatment was widely seen to be linked to the cordial relationship between Deng and the Zhous. Furthermore, one of the subsidiaries of Zhou's holding company in Hong Kong had among its partners no other than Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing and another Shanghai-based company in which Deng's second son, Deng Zhifang, was a vice managing director. The news broke amid rumors of Deng's deteriorating health. Many speculated that this event represented a showdown between two megapowers. Backed by the intertwined relation network (guanxi wang) between the two families, Shougang had reportedly been resisting the new tax reforms initiated by government policy makers, which would drastically reduce the profitability of the giant enterprise.
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- Informal Politics in East Asia , pp. 85 - 105Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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