The Logic of Political Reform: To What End for Chinese Politics?

Abstract

How should China's political changes in the past four decades be understood? In this article, the author argues that one will not be able to make sense of China's political changes from the established "grand discourses" or "political ideologies" in the scholarly literature such as democracy, democratisation and democratic transition since the political values embedded in the discourses or ideologies are not what the Chinese leadership has pursued. Instead, what the Chinese leadership has done is problem-solving, problems that Chinese leaders have encountered in their daily political life. The author thus also looks into the "trivia facts" to interpret what has happened in Chinese politics.