Series on Contemporary China – serie

China emerged as a major economic, diplomatic, and military power during the critical decade from 2008 to 2018. As a result, China's foreign policy has become more active and dynamic. This book provides a unique perspective to understand Chinese foreign policy during this decade by examining continuities and changes in both internal and external factors that have shaped China's development. The book focuses on key challenges in China's diplomacy such as US-China relations, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Japan, India, Chinese investment overseas, the Belt and Road Initiative, global and regional cooperation, soft power, etc. It also includes an extensive annotated bibliography of major recent publications on various aspects of Chinese foreign policy. This is the first scholarly book that studies the evolution and key challenges of China's foreign relations during the critical decade (2008-2018) when China grew into a crucial, sometimes assertive, power in international affairs.

This book provides a comprehensive examination of value changes of Chinese citizens, especially the younger generation, and how the Chinese authorities take efforts to adapt to such changes and refine its social control mechanisms. The book discusses three related themes through a series of topics. The first theme examines the changes in political attitudes and values among Chinese youths, comparing them to the older generations in the mainland and their contemporaries in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The second theme focuses on the recent development of social unrests, new pursuits that emerged in the Chinese society, and new means adopted by the Chinese protestors. The third theme touches on the responses of the party-state under the Xi Jinping administration, and how it has sophisticatized the machine of social control. With these three themes, this book also adds on to the understanding of regime stability of the Communist system in China, and how this system handles a variety of challenges brought about by dramatic social changes.

This book seeks to understand the simultaneous economic and political contributors to China's changing agricultural protection levels and the central government's choice of policy instruments to tax or assist farmers. It theoretically explores the motivation behind agricultural trade-related support policies through extending the two-sector specific factors production model to three sectors, so as to make it more relevant for a one-party state such as China. Chapter three tests that theory empirically, using panel data on agricultural distortions for the period 1981 to 2010 from Anderson and Nelgen (2013). The long-running trend in the level of assistance to the farm sector sees considerable fluctuations in support each year, which has been attributed to fluctuations in international prices of agricultural products. Chapter four seeks to explain the Chinese government's responses to world market price fluctuations. In practice, the government does have other instruments besides trade restrictions to alter domestic producer and consumer prices in the face of fluctuating international prices. Chapter five explores the role that public storage policy can play in contributing to the government's objective of stabilizing the domestic market price of farm products. The final chapter of the book draws out implications for policymakers in China and elsewhere.

This book takes a fresh look at Chinese political economy at a key inflection point. Facing a more competitive international environment, Chinese reform has shifted from its earlier focus on economic liberalization and political decentralization to a more tightly organized, centralized form of state socialism. The Party-state's vigorous fiscal reaction to the Global Financial Crisis (2008-2009) left the country with a much improved infrastructure and greater sense of national self-assurance. The more monocratic central leadership has redoubled efforts to fight poverty and pollution, push technological innovation, and at the same time rigorously enforce ideological consensus, political loyalty and anticorruption.This has been occurring in an international context of slowing trade and nationalist pushback against "globalization", prominently including bilateral Chinese-American polarization. While China has been among the staunchest advocates and beneficiaries of globalization, incipient trade war "decoupling" has spurred movement toward economic and technological self-reliance. Turning inward however vies with a rival impulse toward more vigorous engagement in the world. This is most consequentially represented by the Belt and Road Initiative, driving massive infrastructure construction through Central Asia and the South and Southeast Asian maritime periphery. Despite slowing growth and a large debt overhang, swift recovery from the Covid-19 epidemic leaves China in a relatively strong economic position.

Henry Kissinger observed, "Everybody wants to be a China hawk." China is a bully. China is Nazi Germany. China commits genocide. China disrupts the "international rules-based order." Responding to such uninformed generalization on the nature of China's regime and its lack of human values, the Western Liberal Democracies have created their own "China Problem" by clinging to Cold War anachronism. The clash of values is not nearly as deep and extensive as is often claimed. Furthermore, the contemporary public discourse on China needs a complete assessment of the values that have emerged in Xi Jinping's China. Xi is regarded as "red" like Mao. Xi, however, has abandoned Mao's view of class struggle and his notion of a "rejuvenated China" embraces traditional core principles that Mao bitterly condemned. "Ren", or "benevolence", for example, now informs entwined domestic and foreign policy as "moderate prosperity in all respects". "Ren", or "benevolence" is aligned with "common security" and "common development". The question is whether this is a positive restoration of traditional values that will contribute to domestic development and international peace, or restorationist Middle-Kingdom-ism designed to assert Chinese values worldwide. This book's analysis of Chinese values argues that the current interpretation of the "China Threat" is predicated in a serious misunderstanding of Chinese values.It is often commented that China is "the defining geopolitical issues of our time". This book is an especially timely contribution to the currently limited public policy debate on China as a threat to Western values and the "international rules-based system". Correction is long overdue with reference to speculative assumptions that Xi Jinping's regime represents a return to Mao's regime. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" has significantly moved on under Xi's leadership. Hyperbole about China has presumed the continuation of Chinese Cold War ideology and has either lightly commented on, or ignored altogether the resurgence of core traditional ideas in Chinese policy formation. This book provides detailed research of "Xi Jinping Thought" and "Xi Jinping Diplomatic Thought". It adopts a widely construed, but serious interdisciplinary, approach towards the "China Problem", drawing on both the social sciences and humanities. This wide-angled approach includes "new sinology" in its recent review of "translated China", synthesizing tradition and culture with the development of modern Chinese ideology, politics and policy formation. The book's significant topicality is presented within an unconventional approach and formatted contents designed to reach out to the biggest circle of general and advanced, China-interested readers in the time of great debate.

The fourth generation of leaders of the People's Republic of China, while benefiting from the prestige of China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the honor of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, also needs to contemplate the sobering side-effects of a rapid and internationally-interdependent economy and a troubled and only partly reformed political system.This important book approaches the study of the PRC under Hu Jintao in a two-fold manner: by examining the new political parameters within which the party-state functions and by analyzing the prominent issues — at home and abroad — that are commanding the attention of China's new leaders. The book tackles a comprehensive range of topics, including elites, institutions and state-society relations, politics and the political implications of economic change, domestic politics and foreign relations.

This book provides a discussion of the general impact of WTO membership on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and addresses the political and economic impact on cross-Strait relations of common membership.The book begins with an introduction which analyzes the state of cross-Strait economic and political relations on the eve of dual accession to the WTO and briefly introduces the chapters which follow. The first chapter discusses the concessions made by both sides in their accession agreements and is followed by two chapters which describe the manner in which the Taiwan economy was reformed to achieve compliance as well as the specific, restrictive trade regime that was put into place to manage mainland trade. The next two chapters deal with the implications of that restrictive trade regime for the Taiwan economy in Asia and with the nature of the interactions between the two sides within the WTO. The final four chapters of the volume examine the impact of membership on four sectors of the economy: finance; agriculture; electronics and automobiles. There is a post-script which briefly covers developments since the chapters were completed.

This is the first book that analyzes tobacco control policies in China from the perspectives of economics and health. For readers interested in the economic aspects of tobacco control policy issues not only in China but also in other developing countries, this book provides a comprehensive analytical and empirical framework addressing key debated issues.This book covers a range of interesting topics from the prevalence of smoking in China, health and economic burden of smoking in China, demand for cigarettes and taxation in China, the role of tobacco on farming, the tobacco industry and the World Trade Organization, poverty and smoking in China, to future challenges of tobacco control for the Chinese government.

China has an estimated 120-150 million internal migrants from the countryside living in its cities. These people are the engine that has been driving China's high rate of economic growth. However, until recently, little or no attention has been given to the establishment of a social protection regime for migrant workers. This volume examines the key issues involved in establishing social protection for them, including a critical examination of deficiencies in existing arrangements and an in-depth study of proposals that have been offered for extending social security coverage. Featuring contributions from leading academics outside China who have written on the topic as well as experts from leading Chinese academic institutions such as Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Development Research Center in the State Council, this volume provides a comprehensive account from both inside and outside China.

This book consists of papers presented at the International Conference on “China: The Next Decade”, organized by the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2007 to commemorate the Institute's 10th anniversary. With eight papers covering China's economic, social and political development, this volume offers a balanced yet in-depth assessment of the challenges facing China in the next decade.Featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars, this timely volume analyzes key aspects of China's reforms and development, such as the financial reform, international trade, leadership succession, social protests, health care reform and ethnic relationships. It is suitable for China scholars as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in China's polity, economy and society.

A sequel to the author's trailblazer (China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing, published by World Scientific in 2007), this book tackles the issue of governance in China. It provides up-to-date information on China's political elites and evaluates their ability to deal with crises through four case studies: Snowstorm in the South, the Tibet issue, the Sichuan Earthquake, and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.Along with China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing, this book provides rich empirical information on and insightful theoretical understanding of national-level politics in China and serves as a good reference source for students of Chinese politics.

Why have Taiwan, rich parts of China, and Thailand boomed famously, while the Philippines has long remained stagnant both economically and politically? Do booms abet democracy? Does the rise of middle “classes” promise future liberalization? Why has Philippine democracy brought no boom and barely served the Filipino people?This book, unlike most previous studies, shows that both the roots and results of growth are largely political rather than economic. Specifically, it pays attention to local, not just national, power networks that caused or prevented growth in the four places under consideration. Violence has been common in these polities, along with money. Elections have contributed to socio-political problems that are also obvious in Leninist or junta regimes, because elections are surprisingly easy to buy with corrupt money from government contracts. Liberals should pay more serious theoretical attention to the effects of money on justice, and Western political science should focus more clearly on the ways non-state local power affects elections. By considering the effects on fair justice of local money and power (largely from small- and medium-sized firms that emerge after agrarian reforms), this book asks democrats to face squarely the extent to which electoral procedures fail to help ordinary citizens. Students and scholars of Asia will all need this book — as will students of the West whose methods have become parochial.

Why have Taiwan, rich parts of China, and Thailand boomed famously, while the Philippines has long remained stagnant both economically and politically? Do booms abet democracy? Does the rise of middle “classes” promise future liberalization? Why has Philippine democracy brought no boom and barely served the Filipino people?This book, unlike most previous studies, shows that both the roots and results of growth are largely political rather than economic. Specifically, it pays attention to local, not just national, power networks that caused or prevented growth in the four places under consideration. Violence has been common in these polities, along with money. Elections have contributed to socio-political problems that are also obvious in Leninist or junta regimes, because elections are surprisingly easy to buy with corrupt money from government contracts. Liberals should pay more serious theoretical attention to the effects of money on justice, and Western political science should focus more clearly on the ways non-state local power affects elections. By considering the effects on fair justice of local money and power (largely from small- and medium-sized firms that emerge after agrarian reforms), this book asks democrats to face squarely the extent to which electoral procedures fail to help ordinary citizens. Students and scholars of Asia will all need this book — as will students of the West whose methods have become parochial.

As the dazzling economic and social changes in China have imposed substantial impact upon the quality of environmental governance, it is time to review the problems and progress in the politics of China's environmental protection. This book analyzes the factors in China's governance and political process that affect and restrain its capacity to handle the mounting environmental problems. It argues that solutions to China's ecological woes to a larger extent lie in the political and institutional changes rather than in engineering, technological and investment input. The book talks about new policies and reform measures in the green area taken by the government since 2007, arguing that some of them may be quite effective in the long run, as long as they alter institutional factors and the “growth-first” mindset that obstruct the green effort.The book also includes discussion of China's climate change policy not only because global warming has come under the limelight of the international community in recent years, but also because it offers a unique dimension to analyze the country's environmental diplomacy and domestic bureaucratic structure on emissions cutting and related energy issues. China is currently at the crossroads of further political and economic reform, and the intensified public attention to environmental pollution may help the Chinese Communist Party to decisively push forward the long-sluggish political reforms.

In view of its size, and vast land and sea boundaries that it shares with its neighbours, China has always regarded its peripheral policy as a crucial aspect of its national security. Such a mentality conforms to Chinese leaders' core belief that a stable external environment — in particular, its immediate region — remains the sine qua non for the continued and sustained rejuvenation of their nation.This book examines China's evolving strategies towards its surrounding peripheries. It is the first book to examine in detail President Xi Jinping's steering of China's peripheral diplomacy. It argues that China pursues an ambitious, omnidirectional regional diplomacy that emphasizes the entire periphery region, and not just specific peripheries. According to this book, Chinese regional policy cannot be properly and adequately understood without taking into account its full breadth, substance and scope. Featuring chapters that explore China's evolving policy in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, and addressing new developments under Xi, this book fleshes out the intricacies of how China has been managing its peripheral relationships in Asia under new circumstances and new leadership.

Social Construction in Contemporary China is the 4th major work of the research group led by Prof Lu Xueyi. Lu's previous three works are on the stratification of society, social mobility and social structure respectively. The book places the modernization of China in the historical context and points out that China's modernization is at a turning point. The book emphasizes that the essence of social construction is to build a modern society, thus inferring that social construction occupies a strategic position in the modernization process. The book also discusses various aspects of social construction — the people's livelihood and social undertakings, income distribution, urban and rural communities, community organizations, social management, social norms, social institutions, social structure, the process of social construction. The book covers in-depth analysis of all areas of social construction and the problems associated thereof, and proposes specific suggestions, so that social construction does not remain a project on paper but possesses practical operability. It focuses on reforms in social system as well as optimizing and adjusting social structure. It concludes that along with the in-depth implementation of social construction, social modernization will come to realization, thus attaining the full modernization of socialism and eventually realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

As China rises to become the world's largest economy, half a billion rural villagers are expected to become urban residents in the coming decades. The great urbanization of the world's most populated country is sure to be one of the most far-reaching social-economic events in the 21st century. This book provides a clear and comprehensive review of this unfolding event. It presents not only the evolution of public policies and institutional reforms regarding urban development over the past decades, but also an up-to-date survey and in-depth analysis of contemporary social-economic forces that define and contribute to the process of urbanization. Individuals interested in understanding China's urban development will find this book useful, informative, and fascinating.

Alongside China's vast material development, there came a change of its mental habits, largely affected by the technological revolution in the means of mass communication. This book shows how such a change has brought — and yet been brought by — a new form of pictorial thought, essentially sensuous and imagery, which is suggesting a possible future for the world. Today's China is different from what it used to be; the Maoist years appear, even to the official mind, an absurdity; and this difference is evident in the replacement of the Maoist mass-politics by what should be called "Moral politics", which is petty and personal. It is the moralizing practice that characterizes today's China, when the birth of so-called "ordinary people", taken as a collection of individual authors of their own private lives and personal stories, became an acknowledged social fact, proliferating in all kinds of mass media. This study traces the birth of "ordinary people" to the beginning of the century, when the reformation of the political in terms of personal dilemmas or moral groans began. From the beginning of this century, the moral content of Chinese politics is more and more fulfilled by such as problems of marriage or sexual affairs. In other words, this is participant observation of an affective change in the Chinese mind, where and when sociology became photographic, i.e. the photographer a natural sociologist, and the mold of Facebook or Wechat communication has reshaped the ideographic tradition of its writing system. This is yet another "Cultural Revolution" on the ruins of the Maoist revolution.

This book focuses on a region that, next to the Middle East, has become a dragnet of international conflicts in the world. The South China Sea (SCS) region, furthermore, is the subject over which a rumored war may break out between the United States, the extant superpower, and China, an emergent superpower — should the current power transition end up in a Thucydides Trap. The volatility of the situation has gone beyond the long simmering tensions due to overlapping claims by six contending Asian neighbors, to culminate in a nascent crisis surrounding the US-China contest.The book's broad sweep provides a careful examination of two tangles: (i) a legal tangle bedeviling China's relations with other competing claimant nations, and (ii) a geopolitical tangle at the heart of the US-China contest, arising from America's instinctual response to the China-threat scare trumpeted by neorealist analysts and media gurus as well. The book reviews what general international law has to say on "historic waters", which is the basis of China's claim, in its disputes with its contending neighbors. It also examines the background of the China-threat scare, to see if it has any merit, in light of both the shifts in the running China debate and the evidence of China's might and intentions.The book's final part explores a possible way out of the two tangles, in the interest of arriving at a reconciliation of the tensions and conflicts associated with the SCS, so that the United States and China can meet each other across the divide for the sake of a new era of public order, presumably under a condominium they can build together.

The South China Sea Disputes: Historical, Geopolitical and Legal Studies covers various issues regarding the currently controversial theme of the South China Sea (SCS) disputes. It contains insights by scholars mostly from Republic of China (Taiwan), along with ones from Peoples' Republic of China (mainland China), the Philippines, Australia, and the United States (US).The book is divided into three sections, wherein the historical analysis section illustrates certain important but currently neglected treaties for SCS, e.g., the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Taipei Treaty, and the Cairo Declaration. In particular, the Nationalist government's efforts to recover the Chinese sovereignty in the islands of SCS after the end of World War II are covered. Archival research found in the national archives of the Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the US, and Japan, revealing materials with potential for enhancing territorial and sovereignty claims is covered. In addition, the US State Department historical materials on the SCS disputes are also shown.The geopolitical analysis section in the book specifically addresses the state practice in SCS by Taiwan. It also reveals Taiwan's evolving attitudes from thoughtful planning to perfunctory policy thereof. The circumstances of US-China rivalry in the SCS are also discussed.The legal analysis section includes an explanation of the arbitral award of the SCS, wherein it argues that this arbitration is a non-justiciable dispute resolution. This book serves as a good reference for readers interested in South China Sea disputes.

This book provides a comprehensive review of China's experience in reform and opening up from political, social, and economic perspectives. It attempts to engage existing scholarly debates in three areas — first, how the party-state has evolved in the past four decades and whether it remains a Leninist system or has departed from this system; second, how public attitudes, values and behavior have been intertwined with institutional change, and how the state is expanding its welfare coverage to enhance regime legitimacy. Second, how China has attempted to explore new engines for its growth, with consideration towards environmental protection and technological progress.Chapters in this book are selected from three years of conference presentations co-organized by the Institute of Public Policy (IPP) at the South China University of Technology and UNESCO. Since 2014, IPP and UNESCO have co-hosted a series of annual international conferences and invited leading scholars from China, Europe, and the US to discuss the major challenges to China and the world.

This book examines the political and conceptual metamorphosis of China's oil industry from self-reliance to internationalization. Through the empirical case study of Daqing, the premiere oilfield of the People's Republic of China (PRC) for most of the postwar period and a symbol of industrialization as well as self-reliance, key historical developmental concepts and events are analyzed. Japan's role in stimulating the development of the China's oil industry will also be highlighted as the Japanese government and its business sectors emerged as a supplier of technology and equipment to the Chinese oil industry as well as China's first major oil customer in the early internationalization phase of the PRC's oil industry.

After more than 30 years of rapid development, China has established herself as an important engine of growth for the world economy. This achievement, however, came with a heavy price, in the form of serious pollution in its developed regions and social problems in areas such as healthcare and housing. This publication studies some of such problems and provides an updated account on a wide range of new social policy initiatives in China.China's New Social Policy distinguishes itself from other literature in this field. It undertakes a general methodology that assesses the social impact brought about by the market-oriented changes in China's social policies, and contests the idea whether market-oriented development can result in a more sustainable society. All chapters in the book are crafted by prominent scholars, which include Professor Zheng Yongnian, Director of the East Asian Institute, and Professor Gu Xin, School of Government, Peking University.

This book looks at the emergence of China as a major importer and consumer of energy as well as examines contemporary issues within the Chinese oil industry. As China benefits from globalization, what is the impact on China's relations with countries in its neighbouring region when it seeks more oil importation from overseas sources? China's industrial growth in the Pan Pearl River Delta Region is outstripping its oil supply and China is turning to the ASEAN countries connected to its Pearl River tributaries to form a Pan region that acts both as a conduit for oil supply from other sources as well as the supply source itself.Geopolitics in the region represents one of the main obstacles standing in China's way for a regional agreement on maritime resources. Would the pressure on China for more energy translate into tension and conflicts? How will Japan view or compete with China's initiatives in ASEAN given that Japan is still the region's largest investor.After China's landmark energy crisis in 2004, how will China be able to strike a balance between economic growth and energy consumption? With the growing importance of post-industrial debate and environmentalism, what are the implications of post-industrialism for China? For future energy use, how will China utilize the options of alternative energy, energy conservation and reinvigoration of old energy resources to meet its future oil needs?

With Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) regaining power from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on May 20, 2008, both Beijing and Taipei have been adjusting their policies toward each other. However, these recent changes can be seen as part of the overall ongoing process of policy adjustment in both Beijing and Taipei in response to changing domestic and external conditions since 1979. This book explores the process of policy adjustment and institutional change on both sides of the Taiwan Straits since 1979 and offers policy recommendations. By presenting a comparative and balanced discussion of cross-Straits relations from both mainland Chinese and Taiwanese perspectives, this work will help readers gain an enhanced understanding of this controversial issue.

The current global financial turmoil, triggered by the US subprime crisis, has spread quickly and resulted in the worst global economic crisis since the 1930s. As the world's third largest economy and the second largest trading nation, China is inevitably affected seriously. How China responds to the crisis and how effective its measures are in sustaining a healthy growth will have important implications, both domestically and internationally.The chapters in this volume are divided into five sections. Section one examines the overall impact of the global economic crisis and the responses of the Chinese government. Section two studies the regional aspect of the economy affected by the crisis. Section three explores such economies of the Mainland's southern neighbors as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and the prospect of China's trade. Section four surveys the impact on the ideological and social aspects of the country. Section five concludes with an assessment of China's external policies. The volume offers a comprehensive and in-depth assessment of the impact of the crisis and the measures of the Chinese government to overcome the difficulties.

As China rises to become the world's largest economy, half a billion rural villagers are expected to become urban residents in the coming decades. The great urbanization of the world's most populated country is sure to be one of the most far-reaching social-economic events in the 21st century. This book provides a clear and comprehensive review of this unfolding event. It presents not only the evolution of public policies and institutional reforms regarding urban development over the past decades, but also an up-to-date survey and in-depth analysis of contemporary social-economic forces that define and contribute to the process of urbanization. Individuals interested in understanding China's urban development will find this book useful, informative, and fascinating.

This book provides a fascinating perspective of the experiences of China's reform in the past three decades by focusing on China's interaction with and learning from the external world in her unprecedented efforts to reform and open up. After three introductory chapters on broad scope of reform in the political, economic, and social realms, this book deals with lessons from the Eastern Bloc, China's reform in East Asian context, and China and the developed world. The book concludes with two chapters looking to the future of China's political and economic development. In the existing literature of China's reform experience, this book is unique in perspective, topic selection, and in-depth analyses. With contributions from a group of prominent scholars in the field of China studies such as John Wong, Zheng Yongnian, Thomas P Bernstein, Dorothy J Solinger, and Bo Zhiyue, it will be of immense value to anyone who is interested in China.

This book critically examines the issues and challenges of social development faced by societies in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with particular reference to the major strategies these societies adopt to promote social cohesion and civil harmony in the context of globalization. It focuses on people who have been socially marginalized by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, and examines the measures Greater China has adopted to balance economic growth with social development. The book will be of interest to readers who wish to know more about societies in Mainland China, and the effects of globalization.