According to common misconception the Chinese political system is highly centralized. One result of this widely accepted view is that China specialists have often neglected the study of decision-making as a process. Concentrating upon the neighbouring but contrasting provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou during the decade before the Cultural Revolution, this book examines the interaction between centre and province and, without adopting a 'centralist' or a 'pluralist' viewpoint, argues that a spatial dimension is of necessity part of the Chinese decision-making process. Particular attention is paid to the variability of this interaction over time.

Vols. for -1977 include review for current year and outlook for following year.

Tibet is a land of mysteries. It is not only about religion and occultism: its history remains largely hidden. This book disproves some of the erroneous views on the history and religion of the Tibetans. Tibet has never been a part of China. At the time when China was an inalienable part of the Mongolian Yuan Empire and Manchu Qing Empire, Tibet was a separate country dependent on the Mongol and Manchu emperors, but never lost its statehood. A widespread view that Tibet was an integral part of neighboring empires is related to an ancient Chinese concept of the emperor's universal power. Chinese claims to the "legacy" of the Mongol and Manchu empires are unfounded. Incorporating the name of the state into the "dynasty of China" concept ties sovereign states of other nations to Chinese dynastic history. The inclusion of Tibet into the People's Republic of China was not legitimate. Tibet is an occupied country. This book traces the history of Tibetan statehood from ancient times to our days, describes the life of the Tibetans at the times of Feudalism and Socialism, the coercive inclusion of Tibet into People's Republic of China, the suppression of the national liberation movement, the Cultural Revolution, and subsequent reforms. Many pictures and data concerning these events are being published for the first time. The book has garnered much interest in Russia, particularly in academic and political science circles.

The great migration of farmers leaving rural China to work and live in big cities as 'floaters' has been an on-going debate in China for the past three decades. This book probes into the spatial mobility of migrant workers in Beijing, and questions the city 'rights' issues beneath the city-making movement in contemporary China. In revealing and explaining the socio-spatial injustice, this volume re-theorizes the 'right to the city' in the Chinese context since Deng Xiaoping's reforms. The policy review, census analysis, and housing survey are conducted to examine the fate of migrant workers, who being the most marginalized group have to move persistently as the city expands and modernizes itself. The study also compares the migrant workers with local Pekinese dislocated by inner city renewals and city expansion activities. Rapid urban growth and land expropriation of peripheral farmlands have also created a by-product of urbanization, an informal property development by local farmers in response to rising low-cost rental housing demand. This is a highly comparable phenomenon with cities in other newly industrialized countries, such as São Paulo. Readers will be provided with a good basis in understanding the interplay as well as conflicts between migrant workers' housing rights and China's globalizing and branding pursuits of its capital city. Audience: This book will be of great interest to researchers and policy makers in housing planning, governance towards urban informalities, rights to the city, migrant control and management, and housing-related conflict resolutions in China today.