Series On Contemporary China

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Latest release: February 27, 2023
Series
50
Books
Legitimacy: Ambiguities Of Political Success Or Failure In East And Southeast Asia
Book 1·Mar 2005
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This book documents the bases for a new view of legitimacy in general and in various parts of Asia, including China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The authors see legitimacy anywhere as always partial, rather than total, and somewhat measurable. Legitimacy is specifically political, rather than more vaguely socioeconomic. It can be a predicate of various sizes of collectivity, not just of a sovereign government, or of policies, or of leaders. It can be challenged by patriotism. Legitimacy derives not just from scientific norms or technocracy, even in modern times. It is a belief whose alternative (illegitimacy) people may often suppress in their minds until external situations change, bringing an unexpected cascade of altered legitimacy.The volume is edited by Lynn White, a professor in the Woodrow Wilson School and Politics Department at Princeton. It throws light not only on modern changes of the process of political legitimization, but also on the correlates of that process in specific East and Southeast Asian countries.This book can be adopted as a textbook, please email sales@wspc.com for student price enquiries.
China Under Hu Jintao: Opportunities, Dangers, And Dilemmas
Book 2·Dec 2005
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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.
China's Compliance In Global Affairs: Trade, Arms Control, Environmental Protection, Human Rights
Book 3·Dec 2005
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The rise of China has thrown open many important and interesting questions: Will a strong China behave responsibly in world affairs, complying with the rules and norms of the 'international community'? Or will it defy 'universal standards', and fight instead for its own interests and those of the developing world, thereby challenging the global order dominated by the West?The first of its kind to gauge in a comprehensive manner China's responsibility in world affairs, this book scrutinizes China's compliance with international rules and norms, embodied in the treaties that it has signed or ratified, especially in the areas of trade, arms control and non-proliferation, protection of the environment, and human rights.The book also examines Sino-US relations, as the US closely monitors China's compliance in world affairs. It is that behavior which is largely determining the relative emphasis put on engagement with or containment of China by the West, and by the US in particular.
Political Civilization And Modernization In China: The Political Context Of China's Transformation
Book 4·Feb 2006
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This volume is the first comprehensive study of China's “political civilization” since the term was introduced by then Party Secretary Jiang Zemin in 2002. Selected among about 200 papers delivered at an international conference in Beijing in 2004, this collection of ten essays discusses the relations between “political civilization” and political reform in China from the different perspectives of institution building, political culture, political theory, intra-party democracy, political participation, judiciary reform, legislative reform, and media reform. While the contributors are aware of the enormous difficulties China faces in reforming its political system and political culture, most are optimistic about the prospect of reform. Through theoretical discussions, the institutional analysis and other empirical methods in the book contribute to our understanding of Chinese politics in unique ways.
China Into The Hu-wen Era: Policy Initiatives And Challenges
Book 5·Sep 2006
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This volume is an updated survey and assessment of the recent policy initiatives of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, which have come to be known as the Hu-Wen's New Deal. Individual chapters are written by scholars from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. These scholars hail from Singapore, the United States, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China.Topics cover the patterns and process of leadership succession, emerging political factions, social unrest, sources of economic growth, income disparities, social security reform, land use policy, banking reform, corporate governance, labor and population policies, rule of law, and changes in the Party and ideology. On the external aspects, discussion includes China's changing relations with the U.S., Japan and ASEAN. In many ways, the Hu-Wen leadership today is still coming to grips with the same issues and problems as discussed in this book.
Water And Development In China: The Political Economy Of Shanghai Water Policy
Book 6·Dec 2006
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There is widespread recognition — among policy-makers, business communities, and scholars — of the importance of improving environmental policy and management in China. Environmental concerns in China have triggered the publication of a number of books on the subject. However, very few books offer an in-depth case study of the environmental challenges in Shanghai.This book aims to explore the extent to which Shanghai has managed to cope with water supply as well as water quality control challenges in terms of its sociopolitical and economic development since 1990, with a special reference to the impact of social actors on water policy. The book focuses on the contributions from each actor in water policy — the most influential actor being the Shanghai government, private companies, environmental NGOs, Shanghai citizens, and international development agencies. The Shanghai water sector, in the recent few years, has been diversified through interactions between the Shanghai government and the newly emergent social actors. Consequently, water policy in Shanghai is influenced by multilateral interactions between these actors with their diverse interests and goals. The book will demonstrate the ways in which these actors in the Shanghai water sector have co-evolved through interactions to formulate a new mode of water policy reflecting the diverse interests of the social actors.
De Facto Federalism In China: Reforms And Dynamics Of Central-local Relations
Book 7·Jan 2007
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This book is the first attempt to conceptualize China's central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, China's central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles.Federalism as a functioning system in China is under studied. The author defines the political system existing in China as “de facto federalism”, and provides a detailed analysis of its sources and dynamics in the book. The system is mainly driven by two related factors — inter-governmental decentralization and globalization. While economic decentralization since the 1980s has led to the formation of de facto federalism, globalization since the 1990s has accelerated this process and generated increasingly high pressure on the Chinese leadership to institutionalize de facto federalism by various measures of selective recentralization.
China's Elite Politics: Political Transition And Power Balancing
Book 8·Mar 2007
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China's Elite Politics provides a new theoretical perspective on elite politics in China and uses this theoretical perspective to explain power transfer from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao and political dynamics between different factional groups since the Sixteenth Party Congress of November 2002. It explains the transition in structural terms, presents characteristics of China's political elites, and analyzes the balance of power among formal institutions as well as among factional groups. It also examines political interactions between Jiang Zemin and his cronies on the one side and Hu Jintao and his allies on the other over a number of issues: the epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS); ideological institutionalization; the politics over economic overheating; Jiang Zemin's complete retirement; and Hu Jintao's power consolidation in both ideological and personnel terms. /a
Economic Reform And Cross-strait Relations: Taiwan And China In The Wto
Book 9·Jul 2007
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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.
Discontented Miracle: Growth, Conflict, And Institutional Adaptations In China
Book 10·May 2007
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China has been enjoying stellar economic growth for more than a quarter of a century. Yet the rapid growth amid market-oriented reforms has not been an unalloyed blessing. The “China Miracle” has been accompanied by soaring income inequality and rising social tensions, over-taxing China's resource base and contributing to an environmental crisis. Despite substantial improvement in the standard of living and other social indicators, China's leaders have, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen crackdown, steadfastly held back the opening up of the political system.In this volume, contributors from the disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology examine how existing institutions, broadly defined, might have exacerbated tensions in China's evolving economy, society and polity as well as how institutional developments have been introduced to deal with existing or emerging conflicts and tensions.
China's Surging Economy: Adjusting For More Balanced Development
Book 11·Jun 2007
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The Chinese economy today is at a critical crossroads. Sustained rapid growth has given rise to structural strains as well as sectoral imbalances. It has also generated socio-economic problems such as rising income inequality, rural discontent and environmental degradation. All of these must be addressed before China can enter the next lap of high growth.Containing 12 chapters, this volume is a collaborative effort of leading economists from Beijing, Singapore and elsewhere in the region in analyzing China's economic growth prospects and their concomitant problems and constraints.
Tobacco Control Policy Analysis In China: Economics And Health
Book 12·Jan 2008
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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's Science And Technology Sector And The Forces Of Globalisation
Book 13·May 2008
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China's booming economy has drawn both admiration and fear from the rest of the world. With its ability to churn out high-quality goods at low prices, China has become known as the “factory of the world”.To better understand China's development and modernisation since the 1978 reforms, it is necessary to analyse its policies on importing technologies and developing indigenous ones.The articles in this volume paint a comprehensive picture of the attempts by the Chinese government to adopt and foster science and technology, the successes of the policies and the continuing challenges.
Migration And Social Protection In China
Book 14·Sep 2008
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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.
China's Reforms At 30: Challenges And Prospects
Book 15·Jan 2009
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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.
Political Booms: Local Money And Power In Taiwan, East China, Thailand, And The Philippines
Book 16·Jun 2009
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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.
Politics Of China's Environmental Protection: Problems And Progress
Book 17·May 2009
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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.
Oil In China: From Self-reliance To Internationalization
Book 18·Aug 2009
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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.
China's Elite Politics: Governance And Democratization
Book 19·Feb 2010
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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.
China's New Social Policy: Initiatives For A Harmonious Society
Book 20·Aug 2009
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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.