This book lays bare the reality behind China's efforts at economic modernization by showing: (1) what is happening to the industrial forces that help shape the economy; (2) how economic agents have behaved; (3) what government intentions really are; and (4) how the transition from a centralized to a market-oriented economy has been filled with contradictions and difficult choices. The author examines issues such as China's WTO membership; the Three Gorges Project; the widening differences between the urban and rural areas; the government's efforts to protect its own interests and maintain stability; the impact of reform; and the situation facing state enterprises, the banking system, the agricultural sector, and the environment.

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

China's economy is now comfortably among the world's elite in terms of size. This book examines the contemporary Chinese economy, focusing on the production, appropriation, and distribution of surplus value.

The idea of only one way leading to a modern society seems to be hardly tenable. But even if we agree to this, our theories and terms describing modernization are gained on our own Western history. So social science has to reconsider its basic terms to describe China’s modernization, and maybe even the understanding of modernization itself. The second of two volumes on China’s modernization collects articles by leading Chinese and Western scientists focusing on the main conflicts and differences this process involves. In the first section – “On Contemporary Theory of Modernization” – Manussos Marangudakis represents Shmuel N. Eisenstadt’s concept of “Multiple Modernities and the Theory of Indeterminacy”, one of the best elaborated perspectives on modernity. “Changing China: Dealing with Diversity”, the second section, examines how China copes with dissent and discusses the significance of law and a civil society. Merle Goldman begins with “Dissent of China’s Public Intellectuals in the Post-Mao Era”. The “Modernization of Law in China – its Meaning, Achievements, Obstacles and Prospect” is the subject of Qingbo Zhang. Scott Wilson presents a Gramscian analysis of civil society in “China’s State in the Trenches”. And Francis Schortgen and Shalendra Sharma study how China is “Manufacturing Dissent: Domestic and International Ramifications of China’s Summer of Labor Unrest”. “Neoliberalism and the Changes in East Asian Welfare and Education” is the focus of the third section. Beatriz Carrillo Garcia investigates the “Business Opportunities and Philanthropic Initiatives” in China. “Time, Politics and Homelessness in Contemporary Japan” is the subject of Ritu Vij. Different school books show the “Educational Modernisation Across the Taiwan Straits” by David C. Schak. And Ho-fung Hung discusses the role of China in globalization following the question: “Is China Saving Global Capitalism from the Global Cri-sis?” The additional rubric “On Contemporary Philosophy” involves three articles about “International Development, Paradox and Phronesis” by Robert Kowalski, “The World in the Head” by Robert Cummins, and “Communication, Cooperation and Conflict” by Steffen Borge. Content and abstracts: www.protosociology.de

China’s Market Communism guides readers step by step up the ladder of China’s reforms and transformational possibilities to a full understanding of Beijing’s communist and post-communist options by investigating the lessons that Xi can learn from Mao, Adam Smith and inclusive economic theory. The book sharply distinguishes what can be immediately accomplished from the road that must be traversed to better futures.

The last of four two-volume sets on the key periods of paradigm shift in Chinese religious and cultural history, this book examines the transformation of values in China since 1850, in the “secular” realms of economics, science, medicine, aesthetics, media, and gender, and in each of the major religions (Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity) as well as in Marxist discourse. The nation and science are the values invoked most frequently, with the market and democracy a distant second. As in previous periods of fundamental change in Chinese history, rationalization and secularization have played central roles, but interiorization nearly disappears as a driving force. Also in continuity with the past, the state insists on an exclusive right to define and adjudicate orthodoxy. Contributors include: Daniel H. Bays, Sébastien Billioud, Adam Yuet Chau, Na Chen, Philip Clart, Walter B. Davis, Arif Dirlik, Thomas David DuBois, Lizhu Fan, David Faure, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Ji Zhe, Xiaofei Kang, Eric I. Karchmer, André Laliberté, Angela Ki Che Leung, Xun Liu, Richard Madsen, David Ownby, Ellen Oxfeld, Volker Scheid, Grace Yen Shen, Michael Szonyi, Wang Chien-ch’uan, Xue Yu

This fascinating study considers the fate of 35 million workers laid off from the state-owned sector in China.

Trade and capital are important in the Asia region. Trade in the APEC region has been increasing, but the large rise in China’s exports has also been disturbing as it exhibits export substitution. The first two papers conclude that every economy has gained in trade, though some are more successful than others. And that rise in export has a lot to do with a rise in foreign direct investments. Macroeconomic stability is the pre-condition to growth. Empirical studies show that the lack of stability has encouraged capital to flee an economy. Similarly, a market-oriented, price-driven and matured financial market provides an alternative source of funding. The lesson in economic development is that success in economic growth requires both an externally friendly market environment as well as consistent and favourable internal policies.

When Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, paid an official visit to China in May 1974, it secured Malaysia a place in the annals of regional diplomatic history as the first ASEAN country to establish full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. This book analyses the process of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China, and provides a detailed explanation and understanding of the decision- making process in Malaysia. Shedding light on the roles played by the various principal actors in the process of foreign policy formulation and the influences - both internal and external – that shaped Malaysia’s behaviour, the book highlights why Malaysia decided to pursue a policy of normalisation with China, culminating in the visit in 1974, and in particular why it became the first ASEAN country to establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese. After Malaysia’s recognition of Beijing, two other ASEAN states followed suit, namely Thailand and the Philippines, and the book discusses whether there was some degree of policy coordination amongst ASEAN countries in dealing with China, or if both these countries gave way for Malaysia to be the first. The book also looks at the policy debates within some ASEAN countries regarding relations with China, either conducted officially or unofficially, bilaterally or otherwise. This book will be of interest to scholars of Asian Politics, Asian History, International Relations and Foreign Policy.

This volume of The International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics explores and investigates contemporary challenges and issues facing the Asia-Pacific economies. For researchers and students of economics and finance, this volume is a fascinating exploration of emerging topics in one the fastest growing economies in the world.