A comprehensive and authoritative introduction to China's political history, contemporary political system, and key policy areas, such as the environment, population management, and public health.
Politics in China is an authoritative introduction to how the world's second most populous nation and rapidly rising global power is governed today. Written by leading China scholars, each chapter offers an accessible overview of a key topic in Chinese politics. The opening section provides readers with a firm grounding in China's modern political history, covering the decline and fall of the last imperial dynasty and the rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the radicalism of the era of Mao Zedong (1949-76), the dramatic economic reforms
carried out by Deng Xiaoping and his disciples (1978 to 2012) and the era of Xi Jinping (2012-present), who has consolidated more personal power than any CCP leader since Mao.
The next section sets the framework of politics in the People's Republic of China (PRC) with chapters on the ideology of the CCP, the structure and dynamics of the political system, the role of law and legal reform, and the policies behind the country's spectacular economic transformation. The book then shifts to a discussion of a series of major political issues in China today: reform and resistance in the countryside; changes and challenges in the cities; the arts and culture; the environment and climate change; public health; population policy; and internet politics. The final chapters of the book covers politics in four important areas located on China's geographic periphery: Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The fourth edition of Politics in China has been thoroughly updated and includes a new chapter on the rise and rule of Xi Jinping. It is essential reading not only for students studying the PRC, but also for any reader interested in learning how China has evolved in recent times, how its political system works, and about the most important challenges it faces in years ahead.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Contributors List of Abbreviations INTRODUCTION 1 Studying Chinese Politics - William A. Joseph PART I: POLITICAL HISTORY 2 From Empire to People's Republic - R. Keith Schoppa 3 Mao Zedong in Power (1949-1976) - Frederick C. Teiwes 4 Deng Xiaoping and the Reform Era (1976 to 2012) - Bruce Gilley 5 The Rise and Rule of Xi Jinping (2012 to the present) - Alfred L. Chan PART II: IDEOLOGY, GOVERNANCE, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY 6 Ideology: The Evolution of Chinese Communism - William A. Joseph 7 China's Communist Party-State: The Structure and Dynamics of Power - Cheng Li 8 China's Legal System - Jacques deLisle 9 China's Political Economy - David Zweig PART III: POLITICS AND POLICY IN ACTION 10 Rural China: Reform and Resistance - John James Kennedy 11 Urban China: Changes and Challenges - William Hurst and Christian Sorace 12 Policy Case Study: The Arts - Richard Curt Kraus 13 Policy Case Study: The Environment and Climate Change - Katherine Morton and Fengshi Wu 14 Policy Case Study: Public Health - Joan Kaufman 15 Policy Case Study: Population Policy - Tyrene White 16 Policy Case Study: Internet Politics - Guobin Yang PART IV: POLITICS ON CHINA'S PERIPHERY 17 Tibet - Robert Barnett 18 Xinjiang - Gardner Bovingdon 19 Hong Kong - Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo 20 Taiwan - Shelley Rigger Appendix I: China's Top Leaders Since 1949 Appendix II: Selected Indicators of China's Global Integration, 1978-2022 Timeline of Modern Chinese Political History Glossary Index
William A. Joseph is Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and an Associate in Research of the John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. He is the author of The Critique of Ultra-Leftism in China (1984) and editor or coeditor of New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution (1991), China Briefing (1991, 1992, 1994, 1997), The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (2nd ed., 2001), and Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas (8th ed., 2018).
