wow, thomas barnett, how did he managed to know that without setting his foot in china?

i was told in many occasions how powerful these companies are.
the mayors relies on tax revenue, and various economic figures (GDP growth, etc) for their careers.
each year they would even hold a meeting to assign tax responsibilities with the major companies (and the amount of 'tax refund' to compensate for over-reported revenue/profit)
then they are at the mercy of these corporate heads. changhong is responsible for perhaps 80% of mianyang's GDP.

they could be all legal (although there may also be corruption), for this to happen (but recently tax refund was forbidden)

Typepad blogs ARE blocked on the mainland. Alas, my "love China love hong kong" blog is not immune.

Actually Sun Bin, Barnett has been to China several times for his professional work and has had access to both academics and cadres. I believe he even adopted a girl from China about 2 years ago.

Rural Chinese may get city rights -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4399162.stm
- deserves attention.

Jing is correct. Tom's quite familiar with China firsthand.

Simon - "in Communist China, a company is running the local government."

Was that an intentional Yakov Smirnoffism?

I was exaggerating. I know he must have been in China a few times and know China pretty well.

But not many people got such insight, even those who spend years in China. I am still pretty surprised.

OK Matt, what's a Yakov Smirnoffism? The only Smifnoff I know is a bottle label.

Simon,

Yakov is a Russian expat comedian who was famous for jokes that involved the phrase "In Soviet Russia..." or somesuch. (e.g. "In America, you check books out of library. In Soviet Union, library checks you out.")