Angang: A Transnational History of Industrial Northeast China

 

This talk introduces Koji Hirata's recently published book, Making Mao's Steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the Transnational Origins of Chinese Socialism (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which explores the evolution of heavy industry in Northeast China (Manchuria/Dongbei), with a particular focus on the Anshan Iron and Steel Works (Angang). Drawing on archives and interviews from multiple countries, the book traces Angang’s history from its origins under Japanese colonial rule, through Soviet involvement, to its role as a flagship state-owned enterprise in Maoist China, and finally to a symbol of Northeast China’s “decline” in the post-Mao era.

 

The book argues that China’s industrialization was part of a broader global history of late industrialization, shaped by both capitalist and socialist models. Manchuria, as a transnational borderland, played a crucial role in this process, shaped by technological transfers, shifting geopolitical dynamics, and competing political regimes. It also highlights the local political dynamics of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under socialism. While SOEs were vertically controlled by central authorities, they also operated within a framework of local bureaucratic bargaining. Finally, the book extends beyond the Mao era to explore Dongbei’s industrial "decline" in the post-Mao reform period and its transformation into China’s "rust belt."

 

 

Koji Hirata is a Senior Research Fellow (Senior Lecturer) in History at Monash University in Australia. He earned his Ph.D. in history at Stanford University. Before joining Monash, he was a Research Fellow (JRF) at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on modern China, Japan, and Russia/Soviet Union with broader implications for the global history of capitalism and socialism. His new book, Making Mao’s Steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the Transnational Origins of Chinese Socialism , was recently published by Cambridge University Press in December 2024. He is currently working on a new book project about Mao-era China’s foreign economic relations.