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.

The post-Mao commitment to modernization, coupled with a general revulsion against the lawlessness of the Cultural Revolution, has led to a significant law reform movement in the People’s Republic of China. China’s current leadership seeks to restore order and morale, to attract domestic support and external assistance for its modernization program, and to provide a secure, orderly environment for economic development. It has taken a number of steps to strengthen its laws and judicial system, among which are the PRC’s first substantive and procedural criminal codes. This is the first book-length study of the most important area of Chinese law—the development, organization, and functioning of the criminal justice system in China today. It examines both the formal aspects of the criminal justice system—such as the court, the procuracy, lawyers, and criminal procedure—and the extrajudicial organs and sanctions that play important roles in the Chinese system. Based on published Chinese materials and personal interviews, the book is essential reading for persons interested in human rights and laws in China, as well as for those concerned with China’s political system and economic development. The inclusion of selected documents and an extensive bibliography further enhance the value of the book.

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.

Since the late 1970s China has undergone a great transformation, during which time the country has witnessed an outpouring of competing schools of thought. This book analyzes the major schools of political thought redefining China's transformation and the role Chinese thinkers are playing in the post-Mao era.

In the past decade, China was able to carry out economic reform without political reform, while the Soviet Union attempted the opposite strategy. How did China succeed at economic market reform without changing communist rule? Susan Shirk shows that Chinese communist political institutions are more flexible and less centralized than their Soviet counterparts were. Shirk pioneers a rational choice institutional approach to analyze policy-making in a non-democratic authoritarian country and to explain the history of Chinese market reforms from 1979 to the present. Drawing on extensive interviews with high-level Chinese officials, she pieces together detailed histories of economic reform policy decisions and shows how the political logic of Chinese communist institutions shaped those decisions. Combining theoretical ambition with the flavor of on-the-ground policy-making in Beijing, this book is a major contribution to the study of reform in China and other communist countries. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994. In the past decade, China was able to carry out economic reform without political reform, while the Soviet Union attempted the opposite strategy. How did China succeed at economic market reform without changing communist rule? Susan Shirk shows that Chine

This book documents the bases for a new view of legitimacy in general and in various parts of Asia, including China, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The authors see legitimacy anywhere as always partial, rather than total, and somewhat measurable.

" In 1978, China launched economic reforms that have resulted in one of history’s most dramatic national transformations. The reforms removed bureaucratic obstacles to economic growth and tapped China’s immense reserves of labor and entrepreneurial talent to unleash unparalleled economic growth in the country. In the four decades since, China has become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, and a leading force in international trade and investment. As the contributors to this volume show, China also faces daunting challenges in sustaining growth, continuing its economic ransformation, addressing the adverse consequences of economic success, and dealing with mounting suspicion from the United States and other trade and investment partners. China also confronts risks stemming from the project to expand its influence across the globe through infrastructure investments and other projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, China’s current leader, Xi Jinping, appears determined to make his own lasting mark on the country and on China’s use of its economic clout to shape the world around it. "