The China Reader: Rising Power

The rise of China is the most significant development in world affairs in this generation. No nation in history has risen as quickly or modernized as rapidly as has China over the four decades. This sixth edition of The China Reader chronicles the diverse aspects of this transition since the late-1990s. It is comprehensive in scope and draws upon both primary Chinese sources and secondary Western analyses written by the world's leading experts on contemporary China. Perfectly suited as both a textbook for students as well as for specialists and the public alike, the volume covers the full range of China's internal and external developments. During the past three decades China dramatically modernized its economy and taken a position as one of the two major powers in the world. Its mega-economy has skyrocketed to being the second largest in the world, and will soon surpass the United States on aggregate. The physical transformation of the country has been extraordinary to witness, with infrastructure development unparalleled in human history. Modern cities featuring futuristic architecture have literally risen from farmland across the country. As China has developed domestically, it has also taken its place as a major power on the world stage. Whether in its relations with other powers-the United States, Russia, and European Union-with its neighbors in Asia or other countries across the world, China is now a major factor in international relations. Its businesses are "going global" and its people are establishing their footprint from Antarctica to outer space. For all its newfound prowess, China's rise has not been a smooth process. Domestically, the nation's juggernaut economy has produced numerous negative social and environmental side-effects. Its political system remains anachronistic and authoritarian, with substantial repression. Externally, Beijing's rapid military modernization and regional territorial claims have alarmed China's neighbors. Its relationship with the United States is complex and increasingly strained. And its "soft power" remains limited. Still, the rise of China is the story of the current era. The China Reader is a perfect window into the complexities of this historic process. Contributors to this volume - About the Contributors: Richard A. Bitzinger is a Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Richard C. Bush is Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program and Director of the Center for East Asian Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution. Jean-Pierre Cabestan is Professor in the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. John Delury is Professor of History at Yonsei University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Bruce Dickson is Professor of Political Science & International Affairs and Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University. Joshua Eisenman is Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, and Senior Fellow for China Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council. Peter Ferdinand is Reader in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Joseph Fewsmith is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at Boston University. Michael Fullilove is Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia. Merle Goldman is Professor Emeritus of History at Boston University, and Research Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Jamie Horsely is a Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar in Law, and Executive Director of the China Law Center at Yale University Law School. Hu Jintao was President of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 2002-2012, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission from 2004-2012. Martin Jacques is an author and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science Asia Research Center. Andrew Kuchins is Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Joshua Kurlantzick is a Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. Li Lianjiang is Professor of Political Science at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Kenneth Lieberthal is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Business Administration at the University of Michigan, and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program and Global Policy and Development Program at The Brookings Institution. Justin Yifu Lin is Professor and Honorary Dean in the National School of Development at Peking University, and Member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress. Damian Ma is a Fellow at the Paulson Institute, University of Chicago. Richard Madsen is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. John J. Mearsheimer is R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Rachel Murphy is Associate Professor of Sociology of China, St. Antony's College and Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Oxford. Andrew J. Nathan is Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Barry J. Naughton is Professor of Chinese Economy and Sokwanlok Chair of Chinese International Affairs in the School of International Relations & Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Valerie Niquet is Research Fellow for Asia at the Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique in Paris. Joseph S. Nye is University Distinguished Service Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Evan Osnos is a foreign affairs and politics staff writer at The New Yorker and Nonresident Fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at The Brookings Institution. Minxin Pei is Pritzker Professor of Government and Director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University. Phillip C. Saunders is Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs in the Institute of National Strategic Studies at the U.S. National Defense University. Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. David Shambaugh is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, and Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. Murray Scot Tanner is a Senior Research Scientist in CNA Corporation's China Studies Division. Wang Feng is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California-Irvine, and Nonresident Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Studies Center at The Brookings Institution. Odd Arne Westad is S.T. Lee Professor of US-Asia Relations in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Martin King Whyte is John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Sociology Emeritus at Harvard University. Xi Jinping is President of the People's Republic of China, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Wu Xinbo is Professor, Executive Dean of the Institute of International Studies, and Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. Beina Xu was formerly an online editor/writer at the Council on Foreign Relations. Xu Zhiyong is a lawyer and former Lecturer at Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. Yun Sun is a Senior Associate in the East Asia Program at the Henry L. Stimson Center, and Nonresident Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program's Africa Growth Initiative at The Brookings Institution. Andrew G. Walder is Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor in the Department of Sociology and Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Wang Jisi is Professor and President of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at Peking University. Wang Yi is Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China. Robert Zoellick is Chairman of Goldman Sachs' International Advisors and Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Zhang Jiuhuan is the former Chinese ambassador to Thailand, and Associate of the China Institute of International Studies. Zheng Bijian is a Member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress.