o many western investors, China under president Xi Jinping is a tough nut to crack. While Chinese leaders insist that they welcome foreign investment, the ruling party’s extension of control to companies, with crackdowns on domestic tech giants and more recently theon consulting firms, including America’s blue chip Bain & Company, are puzzling to the outside world.
With a history and sociology background, Marquis, who last year published Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise, has studied entrepreneurs, listed companies and provincial and city officials in, and found that Mao Zedong’s ideology, campaigns and institutions continue to have a deep influence on their thinking.
While the west welcomed Deng’s reforms, it largely overlooked that his premise was his “four cardinal principles”, namely Mao Zedong Thought, Marxism-Leninism, “people’s democratic dictatorship” and Communist party leadership.