Political Reform In China Research Articles

Liu Xiaobo, Charter 08 and the Challenges of Political Reform in China. Edited by Jean-Philippe Béja, Fu Hualing, and Eva Pils. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. xi, 381 pp. $60.00 (cloth); $25.00 (paper).

Liu Xiaobo, Charter 08 and the Challenges of Political Reform in China. Edited by Jean-Philippe Béja, Fu Hualing, and Eva Pils. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012. xi, 381 pp. 25.00 (paper). - Volume 72 Issue 4

The logic and limits of political reform in China

In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation to reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn't there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? This book approaches this question by looking at a number of promising reforms, understanding the incentives of officials at different levels, and the way the Chinese Communist Party operates at the local level. The short answer is that the sort of reforms necessary to make local officials more responsible to the citizens they govern cut too deeply into the organizational structure of the party.

The adaptive state – understanding political reform in China

At the Conference of the National People's Party (NPP) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 2012, Premier Wen Jiabao re-emphasised the urgency of political reform to ensure the legitimacy of the party and to provide a strong institutional underpinning to the construction of a harmonious society based on balanced social and economic development. However, no consensus has emerged either in Sino studies or in political journalism as to the trajectory of these reforms. Nor do senior civil servants have a clear understanding of the logic behind China's new wave of political reforms. Most Sino scholars have focused on the question of whether these reforms represent a move towards democratisation or are just another incremental step in the transition process. This investigation mirrors the core differentiation between China's Constitution and Party (CCP) ideology and Western's democratic values. This article provides an understanding or ‘Road Map’ of China's political reforms. It argues that the latest wave of reforms has an adaptive quality which will not threaten the CCP's dominant position rather they will strengthen the state's capacity to govern through the selective devolution of power both to civil society and local representative institutions.

George Washington's image in China and its impact on the 1911 Revolution

The founding father and first president of the United States of America, George Washington was well known in late Qing China. Stories about his accomplishments and personal virtues were widely and continuously circulated. His name's Chinese transliteration became increasingly elegant and his legacy was subject to different spins, including his willingness to give up hereditary reign just like the Chinese ancient sage kings Yao and Shun, as well as his heroic role in leading a nationalist resistance to foreign rule and his moral courage in facing up to personal responsibility. The various Chinese manipulations of the George Washington story helped the Chinese to understand American history, changed their perceptions of foreigners, and contributed to the revolutionary mobilization against the Qing dynasty. In terms of democracy, the Chinese interpreted Washington's legacy from three angles: the nominal, the institutional, and the ideological. Although lacking a democratic tradition, the Chinese did nevertheless value public mindedness, as illustrated by the much admired legendary ancient sage ruler Yao who allegedly passed his reign to another capable leader Shun, instead of to Yao's own descendants. For this reason, the Chinese of the late Qing period could easily appreciate Washington's choice of a presidency over kingship, but they were ill equipped to fully understand the institutional ramifications and the ideological underpinning of Washington's decision. In short, what attracted the Chinese to the Washington story was the nominal implication for political reform in China, not the substance of genuine democracy. As a result of the popularization of the Washington story during late Qing times in China, the Chinese became much more apprehensive about monarchism than about authoritarianism. Hence, when Yuan Shikai exercised his dictatorship as president, few Chinese reacted strongly. But when Yuan made attempts to abandon the nominal constitutional democracy established in the Revolution's wake and to return to monarchy, the whole country opposed him, resulting in the total collapse of Yuan's imperial ambition. This turn of events had a great deal to do with the popularization of the Washington story in late Qing China.

Understanding the New Rural Co-operative Movement: towards rebuilding civil society in China

Along with the emergence of the ‘three rural issues’ and rural crisis, a new co-operative movement has been witnessed in rural China, which is different from the former revolutionary communalist co-operative movement. This social movement can help to understand and rebuild civil society in China, which has, more often than not, been criticized as not genuine, civil nor society-based. Following the debate's background of the juxtaposition of a fast economic reform together with slow social and political reforms in China, the paper addresses a crucial question on the impact of economic development on civil society dynamics in China. By identifying the causal mechanisms of the new co-operative development and the conditions needed for them to develop, the paper presents some implications of the co-operative model in today's society. These causal mechanisms are set within the context of one historical process evolving with a path dependency. Using this theoretical framework, it further presents the empirical observations. Through the findings it is concluded that the new co-operative movement in rural China can be considered as a mild liberalization within civil society's sphere. While questioning a popularly used perspective examining the voluntary/non-profit nature of civil society organizations and excluding the economic aspect within civil society studies in China, the paper suggests an alternative approach representing an inclusive third sector with diverse organizations that combine both economic and social aims.

Политическая модернизация Китая (окончание)

This publication represents the conclusions of the regular academic seminar “Modern problems of development” conducted in the IMEMO’s Center of the problems of development and modernization. The problems of power-sharing, the specifics of the ideocratic and mobilization society, correlation between reforms and modernization, the traditional and the modern, authoritarianism and democracy, etc. are examined against the background of the realities of the historic process of political reform in China.

Политическая модернизация Китая (часть I)

This publication represents the conclusions of the regular academic seminar “Modern problems of development” conduced in the IMEMO’s Center of the problems of development and modernization. The problems of power-sharing, the specifics of the ideocratic and mobilization society, correlation between reforms and modernization, the traditional and the modern, authoritarianism and democracy, etc. are examined against the background of the realities of the historic process of political reform in China.

Nationalism and Democratization in Contemporary China

The crippled economic and political reform in China has come with two schools of thought: the new-left and nationalism. The new-left focuses on domestic issues, while nationalism tackles more international relationships. This paper explores the effects of radical nationalism on China's democratization process. It argues that if nationalism takes the dominant position in China's political process, Chinese reform will go astray.

Timothy Richard's Buddhist-Christian Studies

Timothy Richard's Buddhist-Christian Studies Lai Pan-chiu Timothy Richard (1845–1919), one of the most well-known nineteenth-century British missionaries who worked in China, is still remembered today for his efforts to disseminate "Western learning" and to promote social welfare and political reform in China.2 Interestingly, although Richard's missionary, educational, and political activities undoubtedly dominated his life in China, he also found the time to translate a number of Buddhist texts from Chinese into English.3 Unlike many of his fellow Christian missionaries, who either despised or ignored Chinese Buddhism, Richard endeavored to promote a dialogue between Christianity and other religions, especially Chinese Buddhism. In fact, his translations inspired several other European missionaries and Sinologists to take a greater interest in Chinese Buddhism, particularly Richard's biographer William E. Soothill (1861–1935) and Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877–1952),4 the founder of Tao Fong Shan, which continues to promote Buddhist-Christian dialogue several decades after its foundation.5 However, Richard's translations of Chinese Buddhist texts, particular his translation of The Awakening of Faith, have been largely neglected by both Buddhists and Sinologists. As a result, the significance of Richard's dialogue with Chinese Buddhism has not yet been properly evaluated. Two recent studies of Richard have focused on his translation of the Buddhist texts and his dialogue with Chinese Buddhism.6 Unlike previous studies, which have viewed Richard as a missionary and analyzed his interpretation of Buddhism from the perspective of interreligious dialogue, the present study attempts to treat him as a Sinologist and review his Buddhist studies from the perspective of Oriental studies. This paper attempts to evaluate critically Richard's interpretation of Chinese Buddhism in the light of the recent debate over Orientalism triggered by the influential critique of the Orientalist enterprise by Edward Said (1935–2003).7 Richard King has examined European studies of Eastern religions in light of this debate and has tried to determine whether these "Orientalist" studies displayed the characteristics of the Orientalist approach criticized by Said. Such characteristics included "textualism" (which identifies a religion with a set of "sacred" texts), "essentialism" (which tends to assume a dualistic demarcation between the East and the West), and the colonial ideology (which legitimated Europeans' pride in their cultural superiority and colonial power).8 Whereas King's study was concerned principally with India, the present study focuses on the [End Page 23] case of Timothy Richard in China but will adopt a similar perspective. I will consider whether Richard's representation of Chinese Buddhism is infected by the textualism, essentialism, and dualistic demarcation between the East and the West that Said identified as the hallmarks of Orientalism, and whether it tended to reflect or legitimize Western colonial ideologies. My exposition of Richard's position will be based mainly on two of his most important works, The New Testament of Higher Buddhism (1910) and An Epistle to All Buddhists (1916). These texts will help us to understand why Richard translated Buddhist texts into English and how he saw the relationship between his studies of Chinese Buddhism and his missionary work. I will try to show that Richard's attempts to promote Buddhist-Christian dialogue were underlain and motivated by his concern for a kingdom—not the Earthly United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was a citizen, nor a Heavenly Kingdom unrelated to the present world, but an imminent "Kingdom of World Peace," whose blessings would be enjoyed by all the peoples of the Earth. Richard's Studies of Chinese Buddhism in Their Historical Contexts In order to understand the historical significance of Timothy Richard's study of Chinese Buddhism, it is necessary to place him in the historical context of the missionary attitudes toward Chinese religions and of the studies of Buddhism in the West. Catholic missionaries had been active in China since the sixteenth century, long before the arrival of the Protestant missionaries in the early nineteenth century. Although some of the Catholic missionaries, especially the Jesuits, initially dressed like Buddhist monks, they soon changed into the robes of Confucian scholars, having discovered that most Chinese respected Confucian scholars more than Buddhist monks. Besides changing their outward...

Grassroots political reform in contemporary China

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction: Historical Reflections on Grassroots Political Reform in China Elizabeth J. Perry and Merle Goldman 2. Village Elections, Transparency, and Anticorruption: Henan and Guangdong Provinces Richard Levy 3. The Implementation of Village Elections and Tax-for-Fee Reform in Rural Northwest China John James Kennedy 4. Fiscal Crisis in China's Townships: Causes and Consequences Jean C. Oi and Zhao Shukai 5. Direct Township Elections Lianjiang Li 6. The Struggle for Village Public Goods Provision: Informal Institutions of Accountability in Rural China Lily L. Tsai 7. Inadvertent Political Reform via Private Associations: Assessing Homeowners' Groups in New Neighborhoods Benjamin L. Read 8. Civil Resistance and Rule of Law in China: The Defense of Homeowners' Rights Yongshun Cai 9. Hope for Protection and Hopeless Choices: Labor Legal Aid in the PRC Mary E. Gallagher 10. Is Labor a Political Force in China? Ching Kwan Lee 11. Between Defiance and Obedience: Protest Opportunism in China Xi Chen 12. In Search of the Grassroots: Hydroelectric Politics in Northwest Yunnan Ralph Litzinger 13. Public Opinion Supervision: Possibilities and Limits of the Media in Constraining Local Officials Yuezhi Zhao and Sun Wusan Notes Contributors Acknowledgments

Хятадын улс төрийн шинэтгэл

English title: Political reforms in China

Debating political reform in China: rule of law vs. democratization

Introduction, Suisheng Zhao 1. Toward a Rule of Law Regime in China, Pan Wei 2. Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei's Proposal for Political Reform, Suisheng Zhao 3. A Government of Laws: Democracy, Rule of Law and Administrative Law Reform in China, Randall Peerenboom 4. The Rule of Law as Transition to Democracy in China, Larry Diamond 5. A Comparative Politics of Democratization in China, Edward Friedman 6. Pan Wei's Rule of Law Regime and Reforming Authoritarianism in China, Gunter Schubert 7. Toward the Rule of Law: Why China's Path Will Be Different from the West, Baohui Zhang 8. The People's Court in Transition: The Prospects of the Chinese Judicial Reform, Qianfan Zhang 9. State Power and Unbalanced Legal Development in China, Yongshun Cai and Songcai Yang 10. Law and Labor in Post-Mao China, Yunqiu Zhang 11. The Internet and Emerging Civil Society in China, Guobin Yang 12. The Internet and Single-Party Rule in China, Tamara Renee Shie 13. Towards a Rule of Law Political Reform under China's Fourth Generation of Leadership, Suisheng Zhao 14. Reflections on Consultative Rule of Law Regime: A Response to My Critics, Pan Wei About the Editor and Contributors Index.

The Role of Japan in Liang Qichao's Introduction of Modern Western Civilization to China (review)

Reviewed by: The Role of Japan in Liang Qichao's Introduction of Modern Western Civilization to China Lu Yan (bio) Joshua Fogel , editor. The Role of Japan in Liang Qichao's Introduction of Modern Western Civilization to China. China Research Monograph, no. 57. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2004. ix, 324 pp. $20.00, ISBN 1-55729-080-6. Among the outstanding personalities of modern China, Liang Qichao is surely one of the three most studied Chinese in American scholarship. Since the publication of Joseph Levenson's pioneering work in 1953, at least three book-length monographs on Liang have been published. The reason why Liang should have so fascinated the English-speaking world is not difficult to understand. Political and cultural leaders of China during the first half of the twentieth century, including Lu Xun and Mao Zedong (the other two most studied figures), acknowledged Liang's powerful influence as they recalled reading Liang's impassioned writings in their youth. In the words of historians, Liang was "the mind of modern China" (Levenson) and a "paradigmatic thinker" (Xiaobing Tang), and his writings forged "an important intellectual link between the age-old tradition of Confucian practical statesmanship and the contemporary search for ideological reorientation" (Hao Chang).1The Role of Japan in Liang Qichao's Introduction of Modern Western Civilization to China revisits this canonized figure and explores most vigorously the Japan connection in Liang's writings and experiences, which previously had been best studied by Philip Huang in his 1972 monograph. As a result, this collected volume reshapes the research on Liang by adding to it a distinctive international dimension and actively deploying the intertextual-analysis method as it explores the three-sided interaction among China, Japan, and the West in Liang's intellectual development. Originating in the papers presented at a conference held in 1998, this volume brings together work by scholars from Japan, China, Taiwan, France, Australia, and the United States. Editor Joshua A. Fogel, a leading scholar in the field of Sino-Japanese relations, contributes an introduction to identify the major themes of the book. The eleven articles that follow are divided into three parts along the lines of "political," "scholarly," and "cultural and personal" issues. Liang's political thought is reexamined with regard to issues relevant to the more recent scholarly discussion on civil society and to the Japanese influence. Some argue against seeing Liang's discussion on his Japanese experiences or his encounter with Japan-mediated Western ideas as a simple process of ready acceptance on Liang's part. Peter Zarrow (chapter 2) finds that the Meiji Restoration had inspired Liang's vision of political reforms in China. But he refuses to call this an "influence," because Liang looked at the Japanese imperial institution through the lens of the Chinese imperial system and hence overemphasized the role of the emperor in the [End Page 100] Meiji system. Donald Price (chapter 3) also views Japan's influence as secondary in Liang's evolving view of state power and moral order. Liang's acceptance of might as both the ends and the means for reconstructing the modern Chinese state and society was first preconditioned by his readings in Social Darwinism in Chinese translation, which in turn prepared him for accepting the theory of statism then popular in Japan. By contrast, Hazama Naoki (chapter 8), in examining Liang's discussion on civic virtue and personal virtue, argues for the transformative influence of Japan on Liang's evolving view from a "public" consciousness, as originally defined in the Chinese classics, to a modern consciousness of the "civic" after living in Japan and reading books published there. Mori Noriko (chapter 9) also finds that works by Japanese scholar Inoue Enryo or writings on social evolution by Benjamin Kidd, available when Liang sojourned in Japan, shaped Liang's attitude toward religion in general and Buddhism in particular. Ishikawa Yoshihiro (chapter 6), as well, shows that geographical determinism, which became popular in late nineteenth-century Japan through the translation of British and German texts, had a direct impact on Liang's thinking through Japanese mediation. The cross-text analysis that nearly all contributors have used here...

Chinese Middle Class Attitudes Towards International Affairs: Nascent Liberalization?

There is a growing interest in the preferences of an emerging middle class in China towards domestic reform. But little attention has been paid to middle class views on world affairs and foreign policy. Given the murky trajectory of political reform in China it is uncertain how middle class preferences may affect government policy. But with the growing role of entrepreneurs in policy-making, one could plausibly expect that middle class voices will increasingly be heard at the top. We need to know what these voices are saying. Using longtitudinal data from the Beijing Area Study this article examines the attitudes of Beijing's middle class towards free trade, international institutions, military spending, the United States and nationalism. It finds that generally the middle class exhibits a greater level of nascent liberalism than poorer income groups. This is consistent with what various international relations theories would expect.

Social Change and Political Reform in China: Meeting the Challenge of Success

This article discusses how two decades of economic reforms have intensified popular unrest and redefined the composition, interests and political attitudes of China's ever more complex social strata. It then analyses some of the fundamental domestic and international issues facing Beijing in the course of those reforms and the social problems that have accompanied economic growth. The Communist Party has responded to the challenges generated by these problems and been forced to undertake more active political reforms or face an even greater loss of its authority. The article explains how the Party under the slogan the “three represents” cast its lot with the emerging beneficiaries of its economic reforms in the belief that only continued rapid development can mitigate the most pressing social problems and ensure stability.

Political Reform in China in the 1990s: Implications for the Future

Chinese political reform in the 1980s was concentrated largely on reversing many of the affects of the Cultural Revolution, such as the “personality cult” and the altitude of “what I say goes,” and improving efficiency through streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower levels. The reforms of that decade demonstrate a certain passivity and vacillation. In comparison, the political reforms enacted in the 1990s tended to be theoretically conscious, entailing a progressive advancing political reform, which promoted change at many levels, concerning relationship between micro and macro, central and local, and state and society. Autonomy, internationality, and progressiveness were the key characteristics of Chinese political reform in the 1990s. In the near future, political reform in China will begin storming age-old fortifications, and only through uninterrupted institutional innovation can China effectively avoid a cataclysm from an “explosion of participation.”

The District People’s Congresses and Political Reform in China

Beijing should revamp the rubber-stamp district people’s congresses to spur democratic institutions and civil society.

The Political Stalinization of China: The Establishment of One-Party Constitutionalism, 1948–1954

This article offers a fresh perspective on the establishment of a one-party constitutional structure in China from 1948 to 1954, using documents and first-hand accounts published in China over the past two decades. These documents suggest that the Stalinization of China cannot be understood outside the larger context of the political Stalinization of the rest of the Communist world. Stalin played a critical role in determining the pace of political reform in China, and he actively encouraged Mao to allow non-Communists to take part in the Chinese electoral process and in the writing of the Chinese constitution. Although Mao would have preferred to establish a Soviet-style one-party system right away, he readily yielded to Stalin's advice. Mao chose to obey Stalin's dictates for political reform so that he could gain greater independence in domestic economic policies.

Democratization in Taiwan: Implications for China (review)

Reviewed by: Democratization in Taiwan: Implications for China Cal Clark (bio) Steve Tsang and Hung-mao Tien, editors. Democratization in Taiwan: Implications for China. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. xviii, 191 pp. Hardcover $65.00, ISBN 0-312-21652-1. The victory of Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party in the March 2000 presidential elections in Taiwan strongly indicated that Taiwan had reached the stage of democratic consolidation in its domestic polity. Chen's victory ended the monopoly of power over the central government that had been held by the Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party during the entire postwar period, although the KMT still holds a tenuous majority in the Legislative Yuan or national parliament. The change of administration proceeded smoothly in May, and despite the fact that Chen won with only 39 percent of the vote in a bitter, three-way race, his victory was greeted with approval by an overwhelming majority of the citizenry. Yet, Taiwan's ambiguous international status (most of the world recognizes China's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan) meant that the assumption of power by a DPP administration was viewed with strong suspicion by the People's Republic of China (PRC), who perceived Chen and the DPP to be advocates of "Taiwan Independence" from China. Chen defused the potential for a crisis in the Taiwan Strait by taking a conciliatory stance toward the PRC. Still, the 2000 [End Page 237] election also indicated that full "consolidation" of democracy in Taiwan depends on events beyond the shores of the island. Democratization in Taiwan, therefore, presents two very different possible "implications for China." First, democracy in Taiwan creates the policy problem for the PRC of how to respond to it. Second, Taiwan's democratic transition during the late 1980s and early 1990s might well serve as a model for political reform in China (for those who see this as desirable). This edited volume by Steve Tsang and Hung-mao Tien appears very timely, especially since Dr. Tien has just become Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs. Overall, the essays here provide an excellent overview of Taiwan's recent political transformation. The book covers the relevant topics well, the major events are cogently summarized and presented, and, furthermore, several of the chapters contain insightful and innovative conceptualizations of Taiwan's democratization. The only drawback is that very little of the book is really concerned with its subtitle, "Implications for China." Only one chapter analyzes the first implication (Beijing's policy responses), and it is now somewhat dated. Virtually all the other essays are almost completely focused on domestic politics in Taiwan, and the only implication that a couple of them try to draw for the PRC is that the Taiwan experience proves that democracy is possible in a Chinese society, although conditions in China do not appear to be very propitious for democracy at present. Hung-mao Tien and Tun-jen Cheng provide an excellent overview of Taiwan's democratization in their essay on "Crafting Democratic Institutions," which delineates six central components of the successful political transformation of Taiwan from one-party authoritarian rule in the mid-1980s to competitive democratic politics less than a decade later: (1) the revision of the constitution, (2) the evolution of a competitive party system (in part because of factionalism within the KMT), (3) the creation of a functioning legislature, (4) the channeling of political competition through the electoral system, (5) the establishment of civilian control over the military, and (6) the integration of a democratic state with a dynamic civil society. Taken together, change in these areas has resulted in effective democratic institutions that are accepted across the political spectrum. Tien and Cheng do a good job, moreover, of discussing both formal institutions and the more informal "game of politics" on Taiwan. Taiwan's success in promoting a smooth democratic transition is underlined, furthermore, in a brief comparative analysis by Laurence Whitehead that juxtaposes Taiwan's experience with those of Mexico and Peru. The heart of a democracy, of course, is free and fair political competition involving elections and political parties. It is no coincidence, then, that four of the book's ten chapters analyze these...

Political Globalisation and the Politics of International Non-governmental Organisations: The Case of Village Democracy in China

Although there is a body of research regarding the development of village self-governance in China, there is only limited research regarding the activity of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in relation to this development. The paper fills this gap through an analysis of the activities and effects of the village self-governance programs of three American-based NGOs: the International Republican Institute (IRI), the Carter Center and the Ford Foundation. These NGOs have assisted in the implementation of a number of reforms to village self-governance in China. NGO involvement in village democracy in China exemplifies a process of 'political globalisation' that involves the intermingling of layers of power and interests at the national and international levels. The paper concludes that, through this process of political globalisation, rural political reforms in China are both promoted and exploited by national and international political actors.