Modernizing China

China is at a critical juncture in its economic transformation as it tries to rebalance what is generally seen as an exhausted growth model. A unifying theme across the reforms that will deliver this transformation is that it can no longer be achieved by raising the amount of physical investment and government direction of resource allocation. Instead China is building a new set of policy frameworks that will allow markets to function more effectively—not unfettered markets, but markets that work efficiently, in line with broad social and other policy goals, and in a sustainable way. Hence, China is now building a new soft infrastructure, that is, the institutional plumbing that underpins and guides the functioning of markets as the key organizing principle toward achieving sustained economic and social progress. Against this background, this volume provides policymakers, academics, and the public with valuable information about policies and institutions in China today. It also looks at the road ahead and key principles that can help China in navigating it. The book focuses on issues crucial in the country’s transformation, such as tax policy and administration, social security, state-owned enterprise reform, medium-term expenditure frameworks, the role of local government finances, capital account liberalization, and renminbi internationalization. As China moves toward a more price-based allocation of resources, strengthening monetary policy frameworks and financial sector regulation will be particularly important in channeling resources to the most productive sectors and minimizing the risks of financial sector stress. Also, upgrading statistical frameworks will be critical for macroeconomic policymaking and investors. Visit : http://www.elibrary.imf.org/page/modernizing-china

This volume of ten essays on Modernizing China discusses crucial issues on: China's economic policies, State-Church relationship, environmental problems, the Four Modernizations, the role of new economic zones, China's perception of external threats, the role of intellectuals, the status of art policy, and the rights of women in society. These essays examine changes taking place in modern China. Will these changes lead to a pluralistic, less-oppressive open society or will they strengthen the hardliners in consolidating their power? What about the future of China after Deng? The volume attempts to generate intellectual debate on these issues. Contributors are Cheryl L. Brown, Paul Chao, Chu-Yuan Cheng, NarNarayan Das, Steven Haverkamp, Ouyang Kang, Arthur Mu-sen Kao, James T. Myers, Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Ranbir Vohra, and Taifa Yu.

In the Modernization of China, an interdisciplinary team of scholars collaborate closely to provide the first systematic, integrated analysis of China in transformation--from an agrarian-based to an urbanized and industrialized society. Moving from the legacy of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties to the reforms and revolutions of the 20th century, the authors seek reasons for China's inability to achieve rapid, steady growth during a 200 year-long struggle to modernize. They examine the changing shape of Chinese society: the role of the state in local politics; military affairs; economics; the development of the educational system; changes in family; population, and settlement patterns; science and technology; world views and foreign relations. And they make frequent comparisons between China's experience with growth and that of two other latecomers to modernization, Japan and Russia. The result is a book that brings much-needed clarity and perspective to our understanding of China, and the way a great civilization attempts to meet the challenge of modernity.

David Shambaugh, a leading international authority on Chinese strategic and military affairs, offers the most comprehensive and insightful assessment to date of the Chinese military. The result of a decade's research, Modernizing China's Military comes at a crucial moment in history, one when international attention is increasingly focused on the rise of Chinese military power. Basing his analysis on an unprecedented use of Chinese military publications and interviews with People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers, Shambaugh addresses important questions about Chinese strategic intentions and military capabilities--questions that are of key concern for government policymakers as well as strategic analysts and a concerned public.

Since the death of Mao, China has entered a new period in its development. Turning away from the all-encompassing emphasis on revolutionary struggle and ideological transformation that characterized the last years of the Maoist era, China's leaders under Deng Xiaoping have initiated dramatic new reform and development policies. In original essays, the contributors, all senior specialists on contemporary China, analyze the reasons for the new policies, the nature and impact of the changes now occurring, and the prospects for a continuation of these policies in the future. Specifically, they examine the Chinese polity as a "consultative authoritarian" system, the farreaching changes in China's agriculture, important shifts in foreign economic relations, the gradual modernization policy pursued by its military leaders, the relaxation of controls on cultural life, and the possibility that current social policies may well increase equality rather than inequality in Chinese society. The authors conclude that it is too early to judge the eventual, long-term outcome of current reforms, which they believe grew out of the political crises and chronic economic problems that afflicted China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Although they see some opposition and built-in limits to reform, on balance they foresee strong support for continued reform and believe it will be difficult for future leaders to reverse course.

A widespread conviction in the need to rescue China’s children took hold in the early twentieth century. Amid political upheaval and natural disasters, neglected or abandoned children became a humanitarian focal point for Sino-Western cooperation and intervention in family life. Chinese academics and officials sought new scientific measures, educational institutions, and social reforms to improve children’s welfare. Successive regimes encouraged teachers to shape children into Qing subjects, Nationalist citizens, or Communist comrades. In Raising China’s Revolutionaries, Margaret Mih Tillman offers a novel perspective on the political and scientific dimensions of experiments with early childhood education from the early Republican period through the first decade of the People’s Republic. She traces transnational advocacy for child welfare and education, examining Christian missionaries, philanthropists, and the role of international relief during World War II. Tillman provides in-depth analysis of similarities and differences between Nationalist and Communist policy and cultural notions of childhood. While both Nationalist and Communist regimes drew on preschool institutions to mobilize the workforce and shape children’s political subjectivity, the Communist regime rejected the Nationalists’ commitment to the modern, bourgeois family. With new insights into the roles of experts, the cultural politics of fundraising, and child welfare as a form of international exchange, Raising China’s Revolutionaries is an important work of institutional and transnational history that illuminates the evolution of modern concepts of childhood in China.

Annotation The most thorough overview of the Chinese defense programs and Sino-American military relations by a leading authority.