The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China

In this presentation, based on my book "The Gilded Cage," I will discuss how the Chinese developmental state orchestrated the transition to becoming the world's second-largest digital economy. This shift occurred against the backdrop of moving away from a labor-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing model. I will explore the rise and nature of China's techno-developmental regime, its implications for state-capital-labor relations, and its varied impacts on different social groups.

Ya-Wen Lei is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University and is affiliated with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. She is the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China and The Gilded Cage: Techno-State Capitalism in China. Her research appears in leading sociological and social science journals, including the Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, and American Journal of Sociology. Her scholarship has received multiple awards from the American Sociological Association, the Law and Society Association, and The China Quarterly.