Abstract
Reviews 535 Debra E. Soled, editor. China: A Nation in Transition. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1995. xv, 418 pp. Hardcover $39.93, isbn 10 -56802-039-2. Paperback $26.95, isbn 0-87187-958-1. As China moves resolutely toward achieving its ambitions, the rest ofthe world has good reason to be concerned and watchful. Thus there is an urgent need for reasonable and accurate assessments of conditions in China and its intentions. Debra E. Soled's new offering, a well-researched and comprehensive sourcebook on China, has arrived to fill this need. The editor and contributors have condensed mountains ofvaluable information into a manageable mini-encyclopedia, yet the book is replete with keen insights and objective interpretations. College instructors, teachers, policy makers, lawmakers, and members of the business community can all benefit greatly from this book. The general reader will peruse it with pleasure. In the introduction, Soled points out that "The country's enormous human potential at last is on its way to being harnessed to regain the glory of China during the best ofits imperial age. Or is it? This sense ofapproaching destiny evokes a feeling ofdéjà vu" (p. xi). One hundred years ago, the Qing dynasty, whose naval forces had just been badly mauled by the Japanese Imperial Navy, was approaching its demise. Today, the country is surging forward to become a formidable power. Indeed, few countries have experienced such a degree of transformation on such a scale in the last one hundred years, and this kind of transition can easily be misunderstood. All ofthis calls for an integrated and objective study of what has been happening in China up to the present time. Soled's book serves this purpose well. The main text of the book consists of two parts. Part 1 (four chapters) is a concise survey that spans four millennia. Part 2 (six chapters) consists of topical discussions on China today. The two parts complement each other and are supported by briefbiographies of major leaders, a chronology ofhistorical events, a selection of important documents, and a bibliography for further study. Wendy Abraham contributes the first two chapters. Chapter 1 introduces major figures, events, and customs oftraditional China. It starts with creation myths and ends with the collapse of the Qing dynasty. The coverage ofthe Ming and Qing eras is rich in detail. Chapter 2 studies the Republican period and shows how the KMT struggled to build a new nation from the ruins ofthe Qing dynasty but gradually exhausted its resources in the painful struggles with the invading© 1996 by University Japanese and the surging Communists. ofHawai'iPressTn chapters 3 and 4, Chi Wang offers studies ofthe Mao and Deng eras. Chapter 3 shows how Mao and the CCP built a powerful state, assumed control ofChinese society, and carried out a social agenda that was Chinese in character. 536 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 The author vividly describes how the country sank into an impasse with the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. In addition to a chronological retelling of major historical events, discussions on the intricacies of Party politics are also included. Chapter 4 describes how Deng rose to become paramount leader and carry out his reforms, and how political and social tension gradually built up and led to the Tiananmen massacre. Wang also assesses the economic aspects of China's opening up to the outside world, the impact of the economic reforms on society and politics, and the aftermath of the Tiananmen massacre. Chapter 5 by Marcia Ristaino probes the complex structure of the Party and the state. Ristaino offers a comparison between Mao's rigid ideology and the notso -ossified thinking of Deng Xiaoping. She chronicles Deng's limited reforms, which brought more openness, flexibility, efficiency, and professionalism to the political system, but also rightìy suggests that widi various competing forces at work, the future of China's political system cannot easily be predicted. Nonetheless , it is reasonable to expect a more open and representative system. Chapter 6 by Ray Bowen II examines the changing character of China's economic system and traces Deng's economic reforms. Bowen thoughtfully points out that...
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