Located in Manchuria (Northeast China), the geopolitical borderland between China, Russia, and Japan, among others, Anshan Iron and Steel Works (Angang) was Mao-era China's most important industrial enterprise. The history of Angang from 1915 to 2000 reveals the hybrid nature of China's accelerated industrialization, shaped by transnational interactions, domestic factors, and local dynamics. Utilizing archives in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and English, Koji Hirata provides the first comprehensive history of this enterprise before, during, and after the Mao era (1949–1976). Through this unique lens, he explores the complex interplay of transnational influences in Mao-era China. By illustrating the symbiotic relationship between socialism and capitalism during the twentieth century, this major new study situates China within the complex global history of late industrialization.

Winner, 2025 Reid Prize, Asian Studies Association of Australia

‘In this meticulously researched monograph Hirata Koji weaves an integrated history of the Anshan Iron and Steel Works located in Northeastern China – the icon of Chinese heavy industrialization – through five different political regimes. In his narrative, the enterprise became a microcosm of modern China shaped by Japanese colonialism, Soviet socialism, the forces of the global, the resilience of the local and regional, the dilemma of central planning, and ultimately the contemporary market reform. An intimate portrayal of how modern China operates and adapts from ground up.’

Debin Ma - Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, University of Oxford

‘Koji Hirata’s fine-grained study of industrial state socialism in China’s Northeast combines local with transnational perspectives and shows the evolving interconnectedness of socialism and capitalism in the process. His book offers an exciting new framework for analyzing industrial regimes in East Asia.’

Elisabeth Köll - William Payden Collegiate Professor, University of Notre Dame

‘Hirata’s book is at the forefront of a new turn in China studies, driven by geopolitical contingencies and restrictions on access to archives in the PRC, toward research that both highlights transnational influences and illuminates Chinese dynamics from the outside in.’

Shellen Wu Source: The China Quarterly

‘Koji Hirata tells a longue durée and fascinating history of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the long twentieth century. The book … presents the political, institutional, and technological history of the Anshan Iron and Steel Works (Angang) from 1915 to 2000 … the discussion of the pre-CCP era provides a rich context for the book’s analysis of Angang’s later transformation. Hirata’s use of multilingual archival materials in Chinese, Japanese, English, and Russian greatly contributes to the current history writing of Chinese SOEs in English. Overall, the book speaks to an audience interested in the history of technology, studies of Chinese history, and the global history of industrialization and capitalism.’

Yuting Dong Source: Technology and Culture