| The dissertation is a study of the career of an American-educated agriculture specialist and provincial official who was executed for corruption in Guangzhou on September 9, 1936. The study contributes to the intellectual and economic history of contemporary China by identifying the origins, in the minds of government planners and the fragmented political conditions of the 1930's, of the contemporary Chinese pattern of local stateowned industry.; The case of Feng Rui illustrates how the ownership and protection of factories by regional governments, a characteristic of China's economic system distinguishing it from other socialist economies, began during China's presocialist Republican period. The system took shape in a context of government fiscal insecurity and competition with other regions for control of trade, when political fragmentation allowed Guangdong and other provinces to pursue independent industrialization plans. An atmosphere of scientistic optimism about the reform of both production and social relations by applying technical knowledge also created the industrial plan of the Guangdong government during the 1930's.; During his five years in office in Guangdong, Feng Rui established a set of sugarcane processing factories as part of a comprehensive program to reform agriculture and revive industry in the province. Though the industry he established remains an important part of Guangdong's state-owned industrial sector today, Feng Rui died in disgrace. Accused of corruption in administration of his program, he was executed on the order of a provincial leader newly allied with central authorities in Nanjing. Feng's factories were dubbed "smokeless" because they sometimes operated without emitting smoke, repackaging imported sugar for sale in Guangdong and other Chinese provinces. Concurrent with the official factory-building program, a large-scale business smuggling foreign sugar into China had developed in evasion of customs tariffs set by the national government. Unable to enforce official sanctions against illicit trade, Feng Rui was charged with collusion with smugglers and blamed for other irregularities in administration of the sugar program.; The account is based on Feng Rui's writings and on archival research in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, London, and the United States. |
