Civil-military Relations in Today's China: Swimming in a New Sea

David M. Finkelstein is the director of Project Asia, the Asian studies center at The CNA Corporation. Dr. Finkelstein received his Ph.D. in Chinese history from Princeton University and studied Mandarin at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. A long-time student of Chinese and Asian affairs, he is widely published. His 1993 historical monograph, From Abandonment to Salvation: Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 1949–50, was hailed in Presidential Studies Quarterly as “blazing a new trail” and “will take an important place in the literature of U.S.–China relations in the mid-20th Century.” He is co-editor of two other M.E. Sharpe publications, China’s Leadership in the 21st Century: The Rise of the Fourth Generation (2002) and Chinese Warfighting: The PLA Experience Since 1949 (2003), and most recently co-editor of China’s Revolution in Doctrinal Affairs: Emerging Trends in the Operational Art of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (2005). A retired U.S. Army officer, Finkelstein is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the Army War College, and the U.S. Army Airborne School. In addition to command and staff positions in the field, he held significant China-related positions at the Pentagon and served on the faculty at West Point, where he taught Chinese history. Kristen Gunness is a senior analyst with Project Asia at The CNA Corporation. She has extensive experience studying, living, and working in China. She is a graduate of the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, and has studied Mandarin at Beijing Capital Normal University and the Harbin Institute of Technology. Ms. Gunness brings to bear first-hand insights into the commercial, economic, and social dynamics at work in today’s ever-changing China. In addition to her years of study on the mainland as a student, she worked as a business consultant in a well established Shanghai firm. In that capacity she spent several years working and traveling in China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Upon returning to the United States, Ms. Gunness worked as an Asia analyst for the Intellibridge Corporation and also served 306 THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS as a trade analyst for China and East Asia at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. Ms. Gunness has written extensively on Chinese security, foreign, and economic affairs. She holds an M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

• Introduction by David Finkelstein 1. Social Trends in China: Implications for the People’s Liberation Army 2. The Impact of Social Changes on the PLA: A Chinese Military Perspective 3. The New Military Elite: Generational Profile and Contradictory Trends 4. The Fourth-Generation Leaders and the New Military Elite 5. The PLA and the Provinces: Military District and Local Issues 6. The Political Implications of PLA Professionalism 7. Unravelling the Myths About Political Commissars 8. Searching for a Twenty-First-Century Officer Corps 9. Educating the Officer Corps: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Its Interactions with Civilian Academic Institutions 10. China’s Defense Budget: Is There Impending Friction Between Defense and Civilian Needs? 11. The PLA in the New Economy: Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est la Même Chose 12. The Challenge of Conscription in an Era of Social Change 13. Demobilization and Resettlement: The Challenge of Downsizing the People’s Liberation Army 14. People’s War in the Twenty-First Century: The Militia and the Reserves