Chinese Entrepreneurs Between Power and Dependency

This book examines the important elite group of newly rich private entrepreneurs who have contributed to lifting China from relative backwardness to an economic giant over the last four decades. Their rise coincides with the Chinese Communist Party's "reform and opening up" policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, which fundamentally transformed China's economic landscape and created unprecedented opportunities for private wealth accumulation. Drawing on extensive interviews and observations of more than forty entrepreneurs who rank among the one percent richest people in China (based on estimates from the renowned Hurun Report), the book offers rare insider perspectives on this influential yet understudied group. These voices reveal the complex realities of building private enterprise within an authoritarian political system, navigating the delicate balance between entrepreneurial ambition and state control.Placing their experiences into a bricolage of historical, social, and political contexts, the book develops a theoretical understanding centered on power and dependency. The entrepreneurs' self-perceptions and narratives illuminate how China's super-rich negotiate their position between market forces and political imperatives, offering crucial insights into the dynamics that have shaped contemporary China's remarkable economic transformation. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Chinese politics, business, and economics, as well as anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of wealth creation and state-market relations in contemporary China.

Jasmine Wang holds a PhD in anthropology from the Department of Anthropology, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.

1: INTRODUCTION 2: INTERPRETING THE ROOTS OF THE CHINESE PAST 3: VOICES OF THE ENTREPRENEURS. 4: SELF PERCEPTIONS AND "ORIGINAL SIN". PRELUDE TO LIMINALITY. 5: THE LIMINAL RICH, HIDDEN NORMS, AND LEGITIMACY 6: "RED RICH" AND "NON-RED RICH" 7: LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARDS