Paper 1 about Chinese media industry - Essay Example

As markets in Western and Eastern economies opened up, various countries in Asia, including Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong took advantage of expanding export markets to strengthen their economies. It was in this context that the Chinese state Under Deng Xiaoping decided to institute market reforms, specifically to make their socialist policies more competitive in an increasingly global economy (Harvey, 2005). Neo-liberal influences were mostly driven by economic stagnation and unemployment in Western countries, which necessitated a new system that diverged from the state interventionist policies introduced under the American New Deal of the 1930s.

Under the neo-liberal theories that came to dominate global economics thinking in the 70s and 80s, state intervention in markets was greatly discouraged with the expectations that self-regulating markets were the best way to tackle economic stagnation (Selden, 1993). It was within this context of a neo-liberal revolution in Western economies that Chinese market and media reforms began. Increasingly, China’s integration with the global economy, which was based on neo-liberal theories, supported by free market Western economies, necessitated reforms in the allocation market economy supported by China under the previous Mao regime.

When China finally opened up its markets to the global economy, there was a dramatic inflow of FDI and the state began to openly support moves towards market freedom (Selden, 1993). This meant that China started to experience similar effects to its economy as the neo-liberalized global economy, which increased the capitalization of China’s elites in comparison to its ordinary citizens (Zhao, 1998). The historical context within which media and market reforms took place in China mainly had to do with the Communism vs.

Capitalism debate, which characterized relations between Western economies and Eastern economies. Media reforms also took place within this