Current events in china in Current Events Books

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The demise of communism in the former Soviet Union and the massive political and economic changes in China are the stunning transformations of our century. Two central questions are emerging: Why did different communist systems experience different patterns of transition? Why did partial reforms in the Soviet Union and China turn into revolutions?

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Post-Mao market reforms in China have led to a massive migration of rural peasants toward the cities. Officially denied residency in the cities, the over 80 million members of this "floating population" provide labor for the economic boom in urban areas but are largely denied government benefits that city residents receive. In an incisive and original study that goes against the grain of much of the current discussion on citizenship, Dorothy J. Solinger challenges the notion that markets necessarily promote rights and legal equality in any direct or linear fashion.

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This book argues that a combination of property rights reform, administrative fragmentation, and technological advance has caused the post-Mao Chinese state to lose a significant degree of control over "thought work, " or the management of propagandistic communications flowing into and through Chinese society. The East Asian economic meltdown of the late 1990's has reinforced the conviction, derived from Communism's nearly worldwide collapse a decade earlier, that the only path to sustained prosperity combines an openness to trade and investment with market economies that are minimally impinged upon by state intervention. But, the author argues, the situation in China demonstrates that the political, social, and cultural costs of "reform and opening" are high. Notably, the construction of culture in China has fallen into the hands of lower-level government administrators, semi-autonomous individuals and groups in society, and foreign-based public and private organizations. Contrary to the prevailing neo-liberal wisdom, however, this transformation has not generated a Habermasian public sphere and an autonomous civil society that will lead China inevitably toward democracy. Instead, the immediate result has been "public sphere praetorianism, " a condition in which the construction of culture becomes excessively market-oriented without being directed toward the achievement of public political goals. The case of China shows that under such conditions, a society is set adrift and rudderless, with its members unable or unwilling to channel their energies toward the resolution of pressing public concerns, and communication flows dissolve into a patternless mosaic. True, the flows are muc less constrained by government than ever before -- an important precondition for democratization. But the short-term effect is actually an enervating depoliticization -- even narcotization -- of society, while the state itself paradoxically continues to lose control.

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<P><i>US-China Relations in the 21st Century</i> addresses the bilateral relations of these two nations on an international, domestic, societal and individual level between 1990 and 2005. Peaceful power shift remains a central dilemma in world politics, since historically power transition from a dominant nation to a challenger has been associated with international wars. This book examines whether China and the US can learn from history and manage a potential power transition peacefully. Grounding his research on contemporary US-China relations with thorough theoretical, historical and policy exploration, Zhu selects two important cases of power transitions in history as the background for this study: power rivalry between Great Britain and Germany (1871-1914) that led to World War I, and the peaceful power transition from Great Britain to the United States (1865-1945).<br><br><i>US-China Relations in the 21st Century</i> contributes to the current IR theory by proposing a new analytical model on global power transition and provides recommendations for peacefully handling a potential power transition from the US to China in the future. This original and comprehensive study is essential reading for scholars of US and Chinese foreign policy, world politics and international relations.</P>

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<P>China has experienced over a quarter century of rapid economic growth, which has a phenomenal impact on the global economy. Entering into the 21st century implies that China has begun a new phase of economic and social development. Vast improvement in people's living standards, however, has been coupled with two critical problems: inequality and poverty. The key question is not that people should be pessimistic about China's future growth and prosperity, but that people should consider which direction that China will go. Is it going to become one of the most un-egalitarian countries like Brazil and Mexico, or one of the most dynamic and relatively egalitarian economies like South Korea and Taiwan. This book reviews the economic development history of contemporary China from 1949 up to today, paying special attention to the interface among growth, inequality and poverty reduction. A real China economic miracle should have two important features: high income growth and a fair distribution system so that povertycan be eradicated.</P>

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How are the public and political lives of Chinese women constrained by states and economies? And how have pockets of women's consciousness come to be produced in and disseminated from this traditionally masculine milieu? The essays in this volume examine the possibilities for a public sphere for Chinese women, one that would both emerge from concrete historical situations and local contexts and cut across the political boundaries separating the Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the West. The challenges of this project are taken up in essays on the legacy of state feminism on the Mainland as contrasted with a grassroots women's movement challenging the state in Taiwan; on the role of the capitalist consumer economy in the emerging lesbian movement in Taiwan; and on the increased trafficking of women as brides, prostitutes, and mistresses between the Mainland and wealthy male patrons in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The writers' examples of masculine domination in the media include the reformulation of Chinese women in Fifth Generation films for a transnational Western male film audience and the portrayal of Mainland women in Taiwanese and Hong Kong media. The contributors also consider male nationalism as it is revealed through both international sports coverage on television and in a Chinese television drama. Other works examine a women's museum, a telephone hotline in Beijing, the films of Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, the transnational contacts of a Taiwanese feminist organization, the diaspora of Mainland women writers, and the differences between Chinese and Western feminist themes.

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<P>Urban reform in China has dramatically changed the socialist urban landscapes and the economy is one of the most dynamic systems. However, economic reform has had a very uneven effect on urban population. While the living standard of a significant proportion of urban residents has improved, a sizeable group of households has been left behind and became a new class - the urban poor.<br><br>There is a close association between poverty and housing in transitional societies. Along with job security, housing was the most important element of the socialist welfare system. Housing privatisation therefore has far-reaching social and economic implications. While urban economic reform and the associated unemployment problems have attracted some attention, the linkage between urban poverty and housing has been largely overlooked until now.<br><br>The major concern of this book is about societies in transition and the associated problem of urban poverty. Under this broad theme, the book aims to analyse the social and economic changes brought forward in Chinese cities by the country's on-going reform programme. It focuses particularly on the problems of urban poverty and low-income urban communities found in large Chinese cities</P>

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<P>Although the Chinese economy is growing at a very high rate, there are massive social dislocations arising as a result of economic restructuring. These problems include unemployment resulting from labor retrenchment, the migration to cities of former rural workers who have become unemployed as the agriculture sector is modernized, and increasing poverty as the social benefits which went with employment in state-owned enterprises are curtailed. The scale of these problems is huge. Based on extensive original research, this book explores many aspects of unemployment, inequality and poverty in urban China.</P>

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