Policy Oscillations in the People's Republic of China: A Critique

1976 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 720-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Secular Change ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Popular Press ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Secular Changes ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

That Chinese policy since 1949 has been characterized by a pattern of left-right oscillations is one of the most widespread, but least examined, assumptions among analysts of Chinese politics. In the popular press, we often read of a “return to a moderate phase” or a “resurgence of radicalism,” while in academic writing, we frequently find contemporary Chinese history set in periods according to the alternate ascendancy of “bureaucratic” or “mobilizational” “models” or of “realist” and “visionary” groups of leaders. Of course, to some extent the policy oscillations model is only a kind of shorthand, convenient for summarizing the content of policy and its changes. We all understand that there have been secular changes in China both in what has been accomplished and in the terms of policy debate. Thus, it has become increasingly common to describe the pattern of policy change in China in terms of a combination of cyclical and secular patterns, to refer to policy oscillations in passing while presenting a chronology which actually indicates secular change, to offer the oscillations model explicitly as just a convenient simplification; or to ignore oscillations entirely in discussing the development of policy.

Ambivalent Alliance: Chinese Policy towards Indonesia, 1960–1965

2015 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 208-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taomo Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Ethnic Chinese ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Foreign Ministry ◽  
First Time

AbstractFrom 1960 until 1965, the People's Republic of China (PRC) built a remarkably cordial quasi alliance with the Republic of Indonesia. At the same time, however, the years between 1960 and 1965 were marked by two large waves of anti-Chinese movements in Indonesia. Although more than half a century has passed since these events, our understanding of Chinese foreign policy towards Indonesia during these turbulent years remains incomplete. In 2008, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Archives declassified for the first time documents produced during the years between 1961 and 1965. However, very recently in summer 2013, the Chinese Foreign Ministry Archives re-classified the main body of its collection. Through examining this body of fresh but currently inaccessible official records, this article aims to bridge the gap between scholarly works on the PRC's diplomatic history and overseas Chinese history. By tracing the processes by which Chinese diplomats dealt with Sukarno, the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunis Indonesia, or the PKI), this article argues that the ambivalent Chinese alliance with Indonesia was shaped by three disparate pressures which interacted and competed with one another: the strategic need to befriend Third World countries, ethnic ties to the Chinese in Indonesia and ideological commitment to the international communist movement.

The Study of Contemporary Chinese Politics: Some Remarks on Retarded Development

1960 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard L. Boorman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
American Social Science ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Aretrospective assessment at mid-century might have suggested that the course of Chinese history between 1900 and 1950 recorded only two events of enduring political significance: the first, the fall of the Ch'ing dynasty in October 1911 and, with it, destruction of the imperial system which had lasted for two millennia; the second, the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949 and, through it, commitment to accelerated modernization and forced industrialization along lines similar to those plotted earlier by the Soviet Union. Simultaneously, assessment of the future might well have concluded, with prescience born of objectivity, that the effect of the Chinese Communist explosion on both Chinese and world politics would merit a major effort on the part of American social science research.

scholarly journals Remembering forgotten heroes and the idealisation of true love: Veteran memorial activism in contemporary China

2021 ◽  
pp. 175069802110179
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Zhenru Lin
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
World War ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
War Of Resistance ◽  
Redress Movement ◽  
Intellectual Elites ◽  
War Commemoration ◽  
Second World ◽  
Veteran Memorial

Recent research on collective memory and war commemoration highlights the ‘conspicuous silence’ of war veterans in Chinese history. Studies of the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945) typically reflect either a state-centred approach, which emphasises the official history constructed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or the alternative narratives constructed by intellectual elites in post-socialist China. In response to these top-down narratives, this essay focuses instead on a historical redress movement led by ex-servicemen of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The former PLA members, the participant volunteers of this movement, devote themselves into seeking and supporting a group of forgotten Kuomintang (KMT) veterans who fought against the Japanese invaders in the Second World War but now struggle with impoverished living conditions. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from 2013 to 2015, I will show how the daily interactions between these two groups of veterans embody a more private and internalised sense of commemorative yearning for a lost past, highlighting in the process the value of ethnographic research in breaking through the wall of silence constructed by hegemonic histories around veteran communities and their role in making war history.

scholarly journals Building Goodwill through Soft Power: An Analysis of China’s Reputation in Sri Lanka

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
R. D. P. Sampath Rajapakshe
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
South Asian Region

Many researchers find out that impacted the types of Chinese foreign policy starting in the mid-1990s. However, Chinese foreign policymakers presented "New Grand Strategy" for the 21st century in the mid-1990s. This strategy exceptionally intended to advance and keep up China's image in the abroad. On the other hand, Policy observers contend introducing of the South Asian region that deliberately essential to emerging China. In addition, Chinese vicinity in Sri Lanka that verbalized by policy observers numerous ways. These contentions express that China's soft power in Sri Lanka that ought to be an extraordinary choice in Chinese policy arrangement. This article investigates current appearance of China's goodwill agenda inspecting two strains of Chinese policy in Sri Lanka that breaking point to observe foreign aid and the Confucius institute that lead the Peoples' Republic of China in 2000s. The paper additionally assesses the achievement of this alleged soft power crusade in Sri Lanka utilizing a worldwide overview to figure out whether the new introduction associates with changed Sri Lankan conclusions about China. This article assesses the adequacy of these endeavors by breaking down public opinion survey accumulated by the Gallup surveying in 2011. Information utilized for this article has been gathered from a substantial number of books, periodicals, magazines, journals. My findings demonstrate that the goodwill agenda has been fruitful at enhancing China's reputation in Sri Lanka.

scholarly journals Socialism with Chinese characteristics

Napredak ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Ivan Mrkić
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Communist Party Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Modern Development ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Short Section ◽  
Populous Country

The text speaks about the formation of the Communist Party of China, its beginnings and development, as well as the categorizations ever since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The new geopolitical reality has been explained, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The argumentation is made about the peculiarities of Chinese history and modern development. The immeasurable importance of the Communist Party of China in governing the most populous country is pointed out. A short section on the relations between Serbia and China has been included. The conclusion highlights the general views encompassing most of the claims presented in the previous text.

Beyond Internal Orientalism: Dance and Nationality Discourse in the Early People's Republic of China, 1949–1954

2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily E. Wilcox
Keyword(s):  
Performing Arts ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Folk Dance ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Ethnic Stereotypes ◽  
Chinese Studies ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Historical Examination ◽  
Developmental Hierarchy

Representations of dancing minorities have often been viewed in contemporary Chinese studies as examples of a broader discursive practice of “internal Orientalism,” a concept developed by anthropologists in the mid-1990s, based on fieldwork conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s. A historical examination of state-sponsored minority dance in the early PRC (1949–54) suggests that internal Orientalism may not be a generalizable explanatory framework for minority dance and its relationship to PRC nationality discourse. During a time when external military threats to the nascent PRC loomed large, long-standing ethnic stereotypes were perceived as a vulnerability to national security and targeted for reform through new policies of state multiculturalism. Thus, rather than portraying minorities as exotic, erotic, and primitive, early PRC dance constructed minorities as models of cultural sophistication, civility, and respectability. Likewise, rather than envisioning a developmental hierarchy between Han and minority dance, national performing arts institutions established during this period constructed Han and minority dance as parallel modes of ethnic performance categorized together as a new genre, “Chinese folk dance.”

Non-Aligned Architecture: China’s Designs on and in Ghana and Guinea, 1955-92

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 261-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cole Roskam
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mao Zedong ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
Trace Back ◽  
The Will ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The current international attention devoted to contemporary Chinese-financed and constructed development in Africa has tended to obscure complex and multivalent histories of the relationships between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and numerous African nations; and many of these histories date back decades. The ideological origins behind socialist China’s engagement with Africa, and the geopolitical dynamics that continue to propel them forward, trace back to the time of Chairman Mao Zedong, who first coined the term ‘intermediate zone’ in 1946 to position the vast expanse of contested territories and undecided loyalties existing between the ideological poles of the Soviet Union and the United States after World War II. Nine years later (1955), at the first Non-Aligned Movement conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai declared thatever since modern times most of the countries of Asia and Africa in varying degrees have been subjected to colonial plunder and oppression, and have thus been forced to remain in a stagnant state of poverty and backwardness […]. We need to develop our countries independently with no outside interference and in accordance with the will of the people.

Procedural Justice and the Fair Trial in Contemporary Chinese Criminal Justice

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-92
Author(s):  
Elisa Nesossi ◽  
Susan Trevaskes
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Fair Trial ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
Time Part ◽  
Substantive Justice ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

AbstractThis review examines the literature on procedural justice and the fair trial over the past two decades in the People’s Republic of China. Part 1 gives a wide-angle view of the key political events and developments that have shaped the experience of procedural justice and the fair trial in contemporary China. It provides a storyline that explains the political environment in which these concepts have developed over time. Part 2 examines how scholars understand the legal structures of the criminal process in relation to China’s political culture. Part 3 presents scholarly views on three enduring problems relating to the fair trial: the presumption of innocence, interrogational torture, and the role of lawyers in the criminal trial process.Procedural justice is a particularly pertinent issue today in China, because Xi Jinping’s yifa zhiguo 依法治国 (governing the nation in accordance with the law) governance platform seeks to embed a greater appreciation for procedural justice in criminal justice decision-making, to correct a politicolegal tradition overwhelmingly focused on substantive justice. Overall, the literature reviewed in this article points to the serious limitations in overcoming the politicolegal barriers to justice reforms that remain intact in the system, despite nearly four decades of constant reform.

A Necessary Evil: Conceptualizing the Socialist Commodity under Mao

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Coderre
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Great Leap ◽  
The Face ◽  
Great Leap Forward ◽  
The Great Leap Forward ◽  
Necessary Evil ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis article traces the conceptual lineage of a statement, made by Mao Zedong and published in 1975, describing the contemporary economic system in the People's Republic of China as a commodity economy. Any surprise we might feel in the face of this verdict says more about our own narrow understanding of the (capitalist) commodity than it does about the political economy of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). As I detail in this study, the continued existence and necessity of commodities under socialism had long been an important topic of conversation in Communist circles, with important ramifications for economic planning and political movements. This article focuses on the impact of Stalin's theory of the socialist commodity, as articulated in 1952, on Chinese political economy in the 1950s; Mao's particular engagement with Stalin's work in the context of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1960); and the emergence of a new, less benign view of the socialist commodity in the 1970s. I argue that political economic theory and its study were in fact critical to the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution as mass mobilization campaigns, calling into question much of what we think we know about modern Chinese history and Chinese socialism. The essay is intended to unsettle enduring and uncritical associations between the commodity-form and capitalism. How might we, following on the heels of the theorists I discuss, imagine the commodity otherwise?

Mao, Lin Biao and the Fifth Encirclement Campaign

1980 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 250-280
Author(s):  
Chi-hsi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The Face ◽  
Important Landmark ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

In more respects than one, the Fifth Encirclement Campaign launched by Chiang Kai-shek in 1933–34 against the Jiangxi Soviet may be considered as an important landmark in contemporary Chinese history. From a purely military standpoint, in view of its scope and the particular means used, it is undoubtedly the first modern Chinese campaign. General Jacques Guillermaz points out, quite rightly, that “the methodical nature of the operations, the importance given to fire power and logistical resources, and the tactical use of large and small units all bring the Fifth Campaign closer to certain phases of the 1914–18 war than to traditional Chinese civil wars.” Precisely because of its scope and its methodical nature, the Fifth Campaign, rather than the first four, led Mao, after the Long March, to evolve a theory of guerrilla warfare which “has broken out of the bounds of tactics to knock at the gates of strategy.” This theory, applied first of all to the war against Japan and later to the Third Revolutionary Civil War, was to change the face of China.

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