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.

In the Modernization of China, an interdisciplinary team of scholars collaborate closely to provide the first systematic, integrated analysis of China in transformation--from an agrarian-based to an urbanized and industrialized society. Moving from the legacy of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties to the reforms and revolutions of the 20th century, the authors seek reasons for China's inability to achieve rapid, steady growth during a 200 year-long struggle to modernize. They examine the changing shape of Chinese society: the role of the state in local politics; military affairs; economics; the development of the educational system; changes in family; population, and settlement patterns; science and technology; world views and foreign relations. And they make frequent comparisons between China's experience with growth and that of two other latecomers to modernization, Japan and Russia. The result is a book that brings much-needed clarity and perspective to our understanding of China, and the way a great civilization attempts to meet the challenge of modernity.

China today is never out of the news: from human rights controversies and the continued legacy of Tiananmen Square, to global coverage of the Beijing Olympics, and the Chinese 'economic miracle'. It seems a country of contradictions: a peasant society with some of the world's most futuristic cities, heir to an ancient civilization that is still trying to find a modern identity. This Very Short Introduction offers the reader with no previous knowledge of China a variety of ways to understand the world's most populous nation, giving a short, integrated picture of modern Chinese society, culture, economy, politics and art. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist An Economist Best Book of the Year | A Financial Times Book of the Year | A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year | A Washington Post Book of the Year | A Bloomberg News Book of the Year | An Esquire China Book of the Year | A Gates Notes Top Read of the Year Perhaps no one in the twentieth century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the many contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist. Once described by Mao Zedong as a “needle inside a ball of cotton,” Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China’s radical transformation in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao’s cult of personality, and loosened the economic and social policies that had stunted China’s growth. Obsessed with modernization and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty. Yet at the same time he answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square. Deng’s youthful commitment to the Communist Party was cemented in Paris in the early 1920s, among a group of Chinese student-workers that also included Zhou Enlai. Deng returned home in 1927 to join the Chinese Revolution on the ground floor. In the fifty years of his tumultuous rise to power, he endured accusations, purges, and even exile before becoming China’s preeminent leader from 1978 to 1989 and again in 1992. When he reached the top, Deng saw an opportunity to creatively destroy much of the economic system he had helped build for five decades as a loyal follower of Mao—and he did not hesitate.

How China's political model could prove to be a viable alternative to Western democracy Westerners tend to divide the political world into "good" democracies and “bad” authoritarian regimes. But the Chinese political model does not fit neatly in either category. Over the past three decades, China has evolved a political system that can best be described as “political meritocracy.” The China Model seeks to understand the ideals and the reality of this unique political system. How do the ideals of political meritocracy set the standard for evaluating political progress (and regress) in China? How can China avoid the disadvantages of political meritocracy? And how can political meritocracy best be combined with democracy? Daniel Bell answers these questions and more. Opening with a critique of “one person, one vote” as a way of choosing top leaders, Bell argues that Chinese-style political meritocracy can help to remedy the key flaws of electoral democracy. He discusses the advantages and pitfalls of political meritocracy, distinguishes between different ways of combining meritocracy and democracy, and argues that China has evolved a model of democratic meritocracy that is morally desirable and politically stable. Bell summarizes and evaluates the “China model”—meritocracy at the top, experimentation in the middle, and democracy at the bottom—and its implications for the rest of the world. A timely and original book that will stir up interest and debate, The China Model looks at a political system that not only has had a long history in China, but could prove to be the most important political development of the twenty-first century.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This book is arranged and developed around the theme of “2050 China,” it analyzes the factors and advantages of the Chinese road to socialist modernization, explores and summarizes the development goal and the basic logic of the socialist modernization of China, and further shows the general basis of the primary stage of socialism. According to the report delivered at the 19th Party Congress, and according to the “two-stage” strategic plan, this book looks ahead in detail to the overarching objective and sub-objectives of essentially achieving socialist modernization by 2035, discusses the building of a great modern socialist country in all respects from the perspective of the Party’s six-sphere integrated plan of economic, political, cultural, social, ecological civilization, and national defense construction, and provides policy proposals. This book also analyzes the influence and the effect of the socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics on the world and it further presents the third centenary goal. In conclusion, this book is an elaboration of the work of the Institute for Contemporary China Studies, Tsinghua University. It reflects the intellectual innovation in the authors’ research on contemporary China, as well as the authors’ foresight and predictions about China’s future development.

English translation of materials from a workshop on Confucian constitutionalism in May 2010 at the City University of Hong Kong.