Is China developing beyond capitalism and socialism? Reviewing the China model and conceptualizing a new variant

Theoretical approaches of international political economy have difficulty in categorizing China’s socioeconomic model. Neither is China socialist anymore nor has the country experienced full-scale capitalist reforms as in the former Soviet bloc. Market mechanisms have been secured in most industries while the state apparatus remains systematically influential through a variety of instruments. Three major concepts are applied in China’s mixed economic order, including socialism, state capitalism, and developmental state, none of which, however, are adequate to understand developments in contemporary China. A salient weakness is the absence of historical sociocultural and political institutional perspectives. The article proposes that China is developing a form of patrimonial market socialism which incorporates socialist, capitalist, and patrimonial components. The internal tensions and sustainability of the variant are also addressed. Although patrimonial market socialism is hardly a model for the Global South, it delivers lessons about economic growth and geopolitical implications for the West.