Yuen Yuen Ang - Chinas Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption

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Yuen Yuen Ang 2020

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To mentors, friends, and acquaintances in need

Producing a book is like producing a film. For every hour of action on a film, thousands of hours of footage were produced and discarded. Not one but many sponsors and individuals work behind the scenes to create a brief sequence of shots. It is the same way with a book, even though it may appear still on paper.

All production requires, first and foremost, financial support. For this, I thank a private foundation that wishes to remain anonymous, whose generous funding enabled my research and valuable time off for writing. I also thank the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for a supplemental grant, as well as the University of Michigans LieberthalRogel Center for Chinese Studies and the Office of Research for their generous research and subvention grants.

One of the greatest joys of writing this book has been working with a talented team of professionals and research assistants: Nathan Baylis, Amy Cesal, Siddharth Chaudhari, Peixu Fang, Michael Thompson, Jiang Zhentao, and Simeng Zeng. Jane Menton skilfully assisted with this project over the course of its evolution and offered helpful comments on my drafts.

Data collection, whether qualitative or quantitative, requires the generosity of many people. This book draws on fieldwork and interviews Ive conducted in China over the years. Again, I wish to thank my research hosts and assistants, who welcomed me into their country and helped me learn about it, as well as the hundreds of bureaucrats and businesspeople who shared their memories and experience. Their stories form the footage with which I made this film.

For the Unbundled Corruption Index (UCI), which appears in who took time from their busy schedule to complete the survey. Several colleagues offered comments early on that helped improve the survey design, including Omolade Adunbi, John Ciociari, Rick Hall, Linda Lim, Ann Lin, Erin McDonnell, and Anne Pitcher, among others. Getting busy people to respond is perhaps the biggest challenge in conducting expert surveys. Thus I extend my sincere appreciation to Linda Lim, Global Integrity (especially Alan Hudson and Johannes Tonn), Ross Business School, and the Wallace Program for connecting me with respondents.

Next, I want to thank many colleagues for feedback at various stages of writing. I thank Anna Grzymala-Busse, Ho-Fung Hung, Diana Kim, and Dan Slater for their formative comments at a book workshop at the Social Science Historical Association just as the book was taking shape. The Center for Global Development, based in Washington, DC, graciously hosted a subsequent book workshop, where I benefited from comments from Masood Ahmed, Charles Kenny, Amanda Glassman, Scott Guggenheim, Scott Morris, Michael Moses, Vijaya Ramachandran, William Savedoff, and Michael Woolcock.

Atul Kohli kindly invited me to present an early chapter from this book some years ago at the Princeton State Building Workshop in New Delhi. His comments propelled me to temporarily set aside that project for a larger book on economic and institutional coevolution, which became How China Escaped the Poverty Trap , and to return to the problem of corruption now, through a comparative-historical lens. Michael Woolcock carefully read the manuscript and offered constructive feedback; in particular, his combination of expertise as a social scientist and development practitioner pushed me to speak to both theoretical and practical concerns. Conversations with Scott Guggenheim and Mark Pyman yielded valuable insights on fighting corruption in the most difficult settings. Alan Hudson lent much needed encouragement for pressing ahead with the task of unbundling corruption. Comments from Alice Evans and Duncan Green, both excellent writers, not only improved the substance of my arguments but taught me how to write better. Jean Oi, Mark Pyman, Andrew Walder, Michael Walton, and Yifan Wei provided timely feedback on my final draft.