A historical-political perspective on China's contemporary ethnic strife caused by its incomplete transition from empire to nation state.

Connectivity, as well as conflict, characterizes Eurasia. This edited volume explores dynamic geopolitical and geo-economic links reconfiguring spaces from the eastern edge of Europe through the western edge of Asia, seeking explanation beyond description. The ancient Silk Road tied together space, much as pipelines, railroads, telecommunications infrastructure, and similar cultural and constructed links ease the mobility of people and products in modern Eurasia. This book considers Eurasia along an interlinked corridor, with chapters illustrating the connections as a discussion foundation focusing on the shared interactions of a set of nation states through time and across space, generating more positive considerations of the resurgently important region of Eurasia. China’s interests fall into three chapters: the southeastern border with Vietnam, the southwestern Himalayan edge, and the western Muslim regions. Russia’s recovery relates events to a larger landmass context and focuses on the importance of historic mobility. A geo-history of the Caspian considers this petroleum-rich area as a zone of cultural and economic interconnection. The final focus on Central Asia treats the traditional heart of “Eurasia”. The concluding chapter pulls together strands linking subregions for a new concept of “Eurasia” as an area linked by vital interests and overlapping histories.

This analysis of the political economy of growth in the era of Deng Xiaoping takes issue with the growth-accounting methodologies and market-centred explanations which characterize so much of the literature on transition-era China. By adopting an approach which echoes the pioneering work of Chalmers Johnson, Alice Amsden, and Robert Wade on other East Asian Economies, and which makes full use of the rich statistical materials that have become available since 1978, this book shows that Chinese growth was driven by a combination of state-led industrial policy and the favourable infrastructural legacies of the Maoist era. And in giving due weight to the sheer complexity of the growth process by looking in detail at the experience of four very different Chinese regions, it avoids over-simplistic macroeconomic generalization. Nevertheless, even this type of approach is inadequate, because it fails to explain why industrial policy has been so much more successful in China than in other countries. This book therefore goes beyond the 'development state' approach to argue that state autonomy in China reflected the remarkably equal distribution of income and wealth at the end of the 1970s and, paradoxically, the destruction of party structures and institutions during the Cultural Revolution. The policy implications are stark. The Chinese experience demonstrates that industrial policy and state spending on physical and social infrastructure can produce rich rewards; conversely, slavish reliance on foreign direct investment and trade are likely to limit the pace of growth. But attempts to replicate China's success in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia will fail because their governments will not resist rent-seeking by classes and interest groups. Moreover, as the state becomes weaker in the wake of the re-emergence of a powerful capitalist class, even Chinese growth may prove unsustainable.

This book is designed as a comprehensive comparative introduction to ethnicity in East and Southeast Asia since 1945. Each chapter covers a particular country looking at such core issues as: · the ethnic minorities or groups in the country of concern, how many ethnic groups, population, language and culture group they belong to, traditional religions and arts · government policy towards the ethnic minorities or groups · the economies of the ethnic minorities or groups and the relation with the national economy; · problems of national integration caused by the ethnic minorities or groups; · the impact of ethnic issues on the country's overall foreign relations.

Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in the Xinjiang oasis of Turpan, Rudelson assesses the factors that undermine the creation of a pan-Uyghur identity.

Written by a team of leading China scholars this text interrogates the dynamics of state power and legitimation in 21st Century China. Despite the continuing economic successes and rising international prestige of China there has been increasing social protests over corruption, land seizures, environmental concerns, and homeowner movements. Such political contestation presents an opportunity to explore the changes occurring in China today – what are the goals of political contestation, how are Chinese Communist Party leaders legitimizing their rule, who are the specific actors involved in contesting state legitimacy today and what are the implications of changing state-society relations for the future viability of the People’s Republic? Key subjects covered include: the legitimacy of the Communist Party internet censorship ethnic resistance rural and urban contention nationalism youth culture labour relations. Chinese Politics is an essential read for all students and scholars of contemporary China as well as those interested in the dynamics of political and social change.

Written by a team of leading China scholars, this book explores the dynamics of state power and legitimation in twenty-first century China, and the implications of changing state-society relations for the future viability of the People's Republic. Key subjects covered include: the legitimacy of the Communist Party state-society relations ethnic and religious resistance rural and urban contention nationalism popular and youth culture prospects for democracy.