How have Westerners seen the People's Republic of China over the years? The question raises many important issues, which this book aims to present, analyze and explain. The basic conclusion is that Western perspectives are somewhat more complex than simply viewing China's realities. Involved also are politics and power relations, trends in journalism and scholarship, as well as individual and group personalities and psychologies.Based on extensive personal experiences in China dating back to 1964 and wide-ranging travel in Tibet and ethnic regions since the 1980s, the author attempts to distinguish trends in different Western countries. However, most of the material will concern the United States, which has been the dominant contributor to Western perspectives during the whole period of concern to this book.The perspectives are taken up by topic, including politics, economy, society, and ethnic minorities. Inherent in each topic is the way cultures see and react towards each other. Images and perspectives can affect policy, and have done so many times in the past, which adds to the importance of this book. It also takes up questions of the sources of Western perspectives, both in terms of direct sources, such as newspapers, television or the internet, and deeper ones, such as social values and temperament.

China's enormous size, vast population, abundant natural resources, robust economy, and modern military demonstrate that the nation has emerged as a great world power. Inside China's Grand Strategy: The Perspective from the People's Republic analyzes China's economic, social, political, and military development, assessing the extent of China's dominance. Highly regarded Chinese scholar Ye Zicheng offers a rare insider's perspective on the country's geopolitical ambitions and strategic thinking. Inside China's Grand Strategy argues that China's primary obstacle to achieving enduring status as a world power is its domestic state of affairs. Ye examines the impact of unemployment, corruption, massive economic gaps between classes, population size, strains on natural and labor resources, environmental degradation, and other issues that impede China's continuing development. Some analysts claim that repressive domestic policies threaten the country's goal of modernization, but Ye points to China's recent inclusion in the G-20 as an indicator of future success. Ye contends that China's progress hinges on many factors: peaceful development, extensive governmental reform with a system of checks and balances, social and economic development on the mainland, and strategies for reunification, especially with Taiwan. Ye asserts that military pressure may be required to integrate Taiwanese separatist forces but advises that development should remain China's primary goal, because it will eventually lead to unification. Although Ye argues that democracy is the only way to repair the corrupt systems that perpetuate economic inequality, he specifies that a Western-style democracy is not what China needs. As the United States' destiny is increasingly bound to China's growth and American policies are being evaluated in the realm of geopolitics, it is important to gauge and understand China's ambitions. An authoritative and up-to-date analysis from within Chinese society, Inside China's Grand Strategy is an indispensible resources for Western scholars, offering a new window on Chinese development.

This book covers numerous areas and aspects of Chinese domestic and external politics and policies, the Chinese economy, Chinese society and culture, and Chinese literature and history. It is divided into four sections, the first of which focuses on China’s place in world politics, including its relations with the European Union, Russia, India, Japan, the United States, and Africa. The second section among others addresses issues and areas related to China’s role in and impact on the international economy, the strategies and positioning of Chinese multinational companies investing in Europe, the problems and challenges of China's banking and financial systems and China's foreign economic strategies. The final two sections are devoted to Chinese politics and society, and Italian views on Chinese culture, language, and literature. The volume is multidisciplinary in nature, with contributions from experts of politics, economics, history, law, literature, gender studies, and the media. It will appeal to a wide range of China scholars and analysts as well as to all who have an interest in international relations, Chinese politics, the Chinese economy, and Chinese society, culture, literature, and history.

In this book, author Jinghao Zhou uses for the first time the prism of public philosophy to examine Chinese society, modernization, globalization, and democratization as a whole. Challenging conventional thinking in China studies, he examines China systematically in seven aspects: history, ideology, economy, politics, religion, education, and China's future, and does so from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The volume asserts that the remaking of China's public philosophy is they key for the nation to achieve both economic and political prosperity, making the bold argument that this remaking can contribute profoundly not only to China's development, but to international peace and development as well. In Remaking China's Public Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century, author Jinghao Zhou uses for the first time the prism of public philosophy to examine Chinese society, modernization, globalization, and democratization as a whole. Challenging conventional thinking in China studies, he examines China systematically in seven aspects: history, ideology, economy, politics, religion, education, and China's future, and does so from both Eastern and Western perspectives. The volume asserts that the remaking of China's public philosophy—the very principles and precepts it now takes for granted—is they key for the nation to achieve both economic and political prosperity. Zhou aims for a peaceful revolution of China's democratization while he explores a new paradigm in China studies, making the bold argument that this remaking can contribute profoundly not only to China's development, but to international peace and development as well.

This title was first published in 2003.The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a timely example of social policy reform in a socialist market economy. This important and topical edited collection brings together leading Chinese and Western experts to introduce and integrate policy issues of the PRC into the mainstream of cross-national social policy debate. Drawing upon comparativist expertise in relevant aspects of social policy, the book explores the ways in which the PRC has or has not taken lessons from abroad in key social policy respects and illustrates policy-relevant relations between Chinese and Western perspectives. The contributors identify those aspects of China’s recent social policy reforms that seem the most and least likely to appeal to Western societies. The collection therefore represents a substantial advance in two-way, East-West lesson learning in social and public policy.