Tracing the role of ideas in Chinese economic reform from 1978 to the present, this book explores the conversion of China's policymakers to capitalist economic thinking. Chen argues that the reform process has created a gap between the legitimacy of the leadership, which remains rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology, and the practice of reform, which has abandoned such ideological constraints. Through a systematic survey of party documents and resolutions, official publications, leaders' speeches, academic journals, and newspapers, Chen shows how Chinese policymakers reconceptualized the ownership system and adjusted related policies. Focusing on a number of economic policy issue areas such as state economy, rural reform, privatization, and income distribution, he analyzes in depth the implications of this gap for the current Chinese leadership and the future of China's political development.

China’s future development is likely to have a huge impact on twenty-first century global outcomes. It is therefore surprising that, thus far, so little attention has been given to comparing and evaluating expert forecasts of China’s future in the post-Mao era. This book presents an illuminating and comprehensive summary record of contrasting and competing expert forecasts and judgements about the major issues confronting China within four principal domains – political, economic, environmental, and international. After considering the principal forecasting methods available to experts, the author comments critically on the degree of success achieved in using those methods and emphasises the confusion created by the polarisation of opinion and by the failure of many experts to accept the high degree of uncertainty that characterises most of the key issues. The book recommends a new approach based on the study of a hierarchy of critical uncertainties and on continuing analysis of opposing expert opinions about these uncertainties. It emphasises the potential for both positive and negative outcomes for these critical uncertainties, and the importance of maximising the potential for positive outcomes through improved analytical and policy frameworks. Providing insights for specialists and non-specialists into the most critical issues that will determine China’s future direction, this book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of political, economic, environmental, and international relations issues in China and Asia, as well as to readers in business and government.

Mao Tse-tung has dominated the Chinese domestic scene for well over four decades now. Ever since the 1935 Tsunyi Conference, he has been successful in asserting his leadership over the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army-the two main loci of power within China. However, in the process, Mao has had to face many a challenge to his authority. At times, it appeared as if the reins of control over the Party and the PLA were slipping out of his hands and that. the country was relapsing into a period of warlordism, or head-ing towards army dictatorship or rule by a Party hierarchy, not loyal to Mao and his dogma. But Chairman Mao has somehow managed to retain his supremacy over the major components of the Chinese political system by deposing or liquidating all those who dared usurp his throne. Mao's successors are unlikely to have either the charismatic personality or the stature of the great helmsman. Therefore, what follows after Mao is a matter of great significance and acute concern for both the Chinese people and the world at large.

This book, first published in 1981, is a comprehensive examination of the main theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches to the study of the military in modernising political systems, in socialist and non-socialist countries. It analyses civil-military relations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and China, and in doing so sheds new light on the comparative politics and strategic affairs of the Cold War period.