China paradigm and the future of global techno-capitalism at a new conjuncture

This response to the four review essays on The Labor of Reinvention reflects on the politics of producing knowledge about China and its implications for understanding global techno-capitalism at the current conjuncture of uncertainty, transformation, and geopolitical tension. Building on Arif Dirlik's “China Paradigm” and Stuart Hall's “conjunctural thinking,” I argue for an approach that attends to the articulation of global and local forces and the contradictions inherent in China's hybrid development. Responding to Yifan Cai, I elaborate on China's evolving state–business relations, tracing the emergence of a “Market in the Fragmented State” in contrast to US oligarchical models. With Gulinigaer Yishake's insights, I revisit the role of family and social reproduction in shaping women's entrepreneurial subjectivities, particularly among ethnic minorities, and link these to longstanding crises of reproduction in rural China. Extending the conversation beyond China, I engage Sandeep Mertia's comparative analysis of India and China to highlight both shared and divergent state–society configurations, infrastructural capacities, and dependencies on the Global North. I also take up Andrea Pollio's call to move beyond a China–US binary toward “Silicon Elsewheres,” foregrounding African and Southern agency in reconfiguring data economies. Finally, I outline my new book project, which traces the circulation of biomedical innovations across China, the US, and Indonesia, analyzing how policymakers and entrepreneurs navigate the tensions between innovation, equity, and self-reliance. The China Paradigm, I argue, continues to generate contradictions and inspire new configurations of techno-capitalism, unsettling global hierarchies while attracting critique, emulation, and resistance.