EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Section 17 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 199 Gabuev Alexander (Carnegie Moscow Center) Ivory Tower on Red Capitalism’s Service: Chinese Companies, Expert Community and Market Entrance to the Post-Soviet Space Key words: China, investment, expert-business relations, Post-Soviet space, CNPC Role of advisors in Chinese practices of overseas investment is one of the most understudied topics glob- ally. While there is a growing bulk of research on patterns of Chinese interactions with local communities and decision makers, the mechanisms of interactions between the Chinese companies and domestic expert com- munity remain unclear. At the same time there are studies trying to identify the role of area-watchers in the policy-making process (mostly on diplomacy and security), but these studies mainly touch upon interactions between expert community and various government agencies. The way Chinese companies are cooperatingwith area studies experts thus requires exploration. This paper attempts to fill the gap. Based on series of interviews, conducted in Beijing during two sessions in October 2014 and November 2015, it describes the relationship between the Chinese specialists on Post-Soviet space and various large Chinese companies. The primary case in focus is CNPC’s use of experts directly affiliated with the state (think tanks formed by various government bodies), semi-government structures (ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences) and private consultants in trying to asses political risks of entering the Russian market. Other cases of advising large-scale private companies and SOEs are discussed as well. The study helps to broaden our understanding of the patterns Chinese companies are using domestic expertise in investing overseas, as well as of the ways the Chinese expert community is adapting to the market economy and attempts to advise the corporate sector on political risks. Gåsemyr Hans Jørgen (University of Bergen), Midtboe Tor (University of Bergen) What do China's Communist Party Members Think about Inequality and Redistribution? Key words: inequality, redistribution, Communist Party, perceptions China's Communist Party is the world's oldest ruling Communist Party and the world's largest political party. While a vast body of research has documented how the Communist Party has modernized itself, includ- ing updating its ideology and membership base, little attention has been given to the political preferences of its 85 million members. This paper starts filling this gap by studying Party members' attitudes toward economic inequality and government redistribution. This topic has become an increasingly salient political issue in China — which is unsurprising given an extremely skewed income distribution, both in compara- tive and historical terms. We seek to determine whether members' attitudes are formed by self-interest operationalized by their socioeconomic positions, by deeper ideological sentiments, or by internalizing Party-sanctioned opinions. We also want to find out whether the attitudes of the members differ systemati- cally from that of the non-members, or whether differences within the party reflect broader cleavages within the Chinese society as a whole. By combining three large and representative surveys from 2004, 2009, and 2014 we have the statistical power to identify such cleavages. Ivanov Sergei (Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East FEB RAS) From Cross-Border Trade to Investment: Chinese Medium Sized Enterprises in Russian Primorye Key words: Outward investment, China, Primorsky krai, management structure, cross-border coo­ peration The paper examines Chinese medium sized enterprises entry and survival strategies in Primorsky Krai of Russian Far East. Russian statistics shows that the Chinese investment in Russian Far East are very limited, but collateral data reveal the leading positions of medium sized enterprises from China in some sectors of regional agriculture and light industry. While the difference in estimates occurs due to a number of formal and informal practices used by firms, the only aim of their usage is to smoothly integrate into local economic and government