Farming for the Overseas Market under the Maoist State Export Production in the Rural Pearl River Delta in the 1960s and 1970s

Drawing on county-level for eign trade archi val doc u ments, this arti cle explores export pro duc tion in the rural Pearl River delta dur ing the z96os and z97os, focus ing on the rela tion ship between local for eign trade agencies and grass roots col lec tives in three counties. The study con tends that, instead of the state hav ing com plete con trol of the entire pro duc tion and pro cure ment pro cess, rural export pro duc tion in the Pearl River delta dem on strates remark able diversity and responsiveness to fluctuating overseas market conditions, whose adaptability, how ever, was sig niicantly constrained by the grain-irst pol icy dur ing the Mao ist era. This research fur ther pos its that the inter play between con trol and auton omy mech a nisms shaped the institutional context in which rational, calculating Chinese peasants navigated the Maoist state. Notably, the state was not a mono lithic entity, and its bound aries with the peas ants were permeable and dynamic.