Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Brendan Forde, ANU
With each Chinese leader a new ideological formulation is added to the regime’s canon of guiding principles.
Above all are the theories of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, but leaders in recent years have also made contributions. Read more…
Author: Hu Shuli, Caixin Media
In the 18th Party Congress report, the single area that has justifiably generated the most attention is references to political reform.
But, in fact, views on this report will rely entirely on initial expectations.
Author: Derek Scissors, Heritage Foundation
The US government suffers from understandable but harmful confusion concerning Chinese economic reform.
Market reforms have been most often implemented gradually, and that slowness is misperceived to be moderation. In fact, when market reforms have occurred, they have been clear and powerful. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
There were more than a few surprises in the events that surrounded the Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing last week.
All of them underline the stark economic and political choices that the new Chinese leadership will face in dealing with the next phase of national development. Read more…
Author: Jason Young, Victoria University of Wellington
Since the early 1980s, hundreds of millions of migrants have entered urban areas without full urban status. In conjunction with local industries these migrants put increasing pressure on the state to abolish the hukou system, which requires Chinese citizens to hold a valid residency permit. The state has responded by liberalising two key areas of hukou management but failed to address the fundamental issue of civic inequality.
Today, hukou remains an important governing instrument to promote economic development, maintain social stability and manage migration and urbanisation but these blunt development tools increasingly threaten to dampen the growing dynamism of Chinese society and economy. Read more…
Author: Edward Kus
China is obviously a nation grappling with the contradictions embodied by its desire for development and its recent (and more ancient) past. The recent school stabbings highlight some acute social issues in China, but reactions among my acquaintances demonstrate how China increasingly seems to be looking in on itself for answers rather than to the rest of the world.
Two historically important aspects of Chinese thought are finding new footing in contemporary Chinese society. The first concept is Sino-centralism and the second is known as the Sino-‘barbarian’ dichotomy. Read more…
Author: Jerome Cohen, NYU
The most formidable challenge to China’s establishment of a credible ‘rule of law’ is neither the quality of its legislation nor the professional competence of its judges, prosecutors, lawyers and police. Laws and the skills of those who apply them have both witnessed substantial progress in the People’s Republic during the past three decades.
The real challenge to the administration of justice in China is, rather, the undue intrusion of politics and, even more broadly, of ‘guanxi’, the network of interpersonal relations of mutual protection, benefit and dependency that is one of the enduring hallmarks of Chinese society. Read more…
