Lowell Dittmer

The Politics of Mass Criticism

Liu Shao-ChìI and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Guoli Liu

China's rapid and complex political and socioeconomic changes provide fertile ground for pioneering analysis, but they also present daunting theoretical and practical challenges. This reader takes up the challenge, offering the most comprehensive assessment of Chinese domestic politics available by bringing together the best recent scholarship in the field. The anthology focuses on the origin, content, and significance of the post-1989 phase of China's reform and opening to the world, commonly known in the PRC as "deep reform." This period has been unfolding in interaction with globalization, marketization, privatization, political institutionalization, as well as with financial and legal changes. Deep reform includes new policy initiatives that have penetrated political, legal, economic, and social sectors untouched by previous initiatives as reformers have been forced to deal with the consequences—intended and unintended—of earlier reforms. These carefully selected essays by leading scholars have been revised and updated for this text. In addition, a substantive introduction and conclusion place the articles in their broader context for readers new to the subject. With the successful transition of the leadership of the party, state, and military since 2002, the time is ripe for a comprehensive evaluation of China's deep reform as it enters a new stage. This timely reader will offer students, scholars, and policymakers invaluable insights into the dynamics of change in one of the world's emerging political and economic dynamos. Contributions by: Marc Blecher, Bruce J. Dickson, Lowell Dittmer, Joseph Fewsmith, Ting Gong, Baogang Guo, William Hurst, Cheng Li, Guoli Liu, Andrew J. Nathan, Kevin J. O'Brien, Veronica Pearson, Randall Peerenboom, Yingyi Qian, Tony Saich, Tianjian Shi, Edward S. Steinfeld, Shaoguang Wang, Lynn White, Yu-Shan Wu, and Guobin Yang

Domestic Politics in Transition

China's Deep Reform

The Post-liberation Epoch, 1949-1981

China's Continuous Revolution

Samuel S. Kim

How to define a Chinese national identity remains as hotly contested a question among today's Chinese citizens as it has been among foreign observers. This volume brings together ten new essays by an interdisciplinary group of leading sinologists and offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the nature of Chinese national identity in past and contemporary settings.

China's Quest for National Identity

Sheds new light on the political disorder of Sino-American geopolitics. The rise of China in recent years is widely regarded as a momentous shift in the global balance of power. China is now extending its sovereignty, constructing a new set of global financial institutions, and replacing "universal values" with technologically enhanced nationalism. In response to China's challenge, the United States has abandoned its "constructive engagement" policy towards the rising power and engaged in a trade war. This book sheds new light on the current political disorder in the Sino-American relationship, analyzing the disorder from three perspectives: identity, political economy, and the triangular dynamic. This collection of essays concludes that, unless and until consensus can be reached on a coherent new framework for cooperation and rule enforcement among different stakeholders in East Asia, the current disorder may be expected to persist.

Rivalries Embroiling the Pacific Century

New Asian Disorder

By addressing the issues that decimated China's monolithic elite in the late 1960s, this text illuminates not only the life and fate of Liu Shaoqi, but also the policy-making process of a revolutionary state facing the diverting exigencies of economic modernization and political development.

Liu Shaoqi and the Chinese Cultural Revolution

This balanced and deeply informed book provides a comprehensive account of China’s Asia policy since the Cold War. Lowell Dittmer traces the PRC’s policy toward its Asian neighbors in the context of the country’s move from a developing nation to a great power, capable of playing a role in world politics commensurate with its remarkable economic rise. The author considers China’s bilateral relations with Russia, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Australia. Each of these relationships is also viewed in terms of China’s rivalry with the United States, which has viewed China’s rise with admiration tinged with a certain foreboding. Thus, Dittmer employs a triangular analysis to understand Beijing’s attempt to expand in Asia while at the same time deterring Washington’s interference. Reframing the international relations of Asia in a thought-provoking and informed manner, this important book presents a panoramic view of the dynamics at work on all sides of China.

Triangular Dynamics since the Cold War

China's Asia

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. China’s relation to Taiwan has been in constant contention since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949 and the creation of the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) exile regime on the island two months later. The island’s autonomous sovereignty has continually been challenged, initially because of the KMT’s insistence that it continue to represent not just Taiwan but all of China—and later because Taiwan refused to cede sovereignty to the then-dominant power that had arisen on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. One thing that makes Taiwan so politically difficult and yet so intellectually fascinating is that it ­­is not merely a security problem, but a ganglion of interrelated puzzles. The optimistic hope of the Ma Ying-jeou administration for a new era of peace and cooperation foundered on a landslide victory by the Democratic Progressive Party, which has made clear its intent to distance Taiwan from China’s political embrace. The Taiwanese are now waiting with bated breath as the relationship tautens. Why did détente fail, and what chance does Taiwan have without it? Contributors to this volume focus on three aspects of the evolving quandary: nationalistic identity, social economy, and political strategy.

Fitful Embrace

Taiwan and China

The chief target of China's infamous Cultural Revolution, Liu Shaoqi is one of the tragic figures of the Chinese revolution. By addressing the issues that decimated China's monolithic elite in the late 1960s, Lowell Dittmer illuminates not only the life and fate of this fascinating leader but also the policy-making process of a revolutionary state facing the diverging exigencies of economic modernization and political development. Liu Shaoqi emerges as the symbol of a systematic endeavor to combine order with revolution and equality using economic efficiency and technocratic values. In this new edition, Mr. Dittmer tells the end of the story -- the death of Liu Shaoqi and the fate of Wang Guangmei (Liu's wife and a notable figure herself) and other members of Liu's family and inner circle -- and the legacy and relevance of Liu's contribution to China in the late twentieth century.

Lowell Dittmer

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