Patterns Of Political Elite Mobility In Modern China 1912 1949

Xiaoqun Xu makes a compelling and original contribution to the study of China's modernization with this book on the rise of professional associations in Republican China in their birthplace of Shanghai, and of their political and socio-cultural milieu. This 2001 book is rich in detail about the key professional and political figures and organizations in Shanghai, filling an important gap in its social history. The professional associations were, as the author writes, 'unambiguously urban and modern in their origins and functions ... representing a new breed of educated Chinese' and they pioneered a new type of relationship with the state. Xu addresses a central issue in China studies, the relationship between state and society, and proposes an alternative to the Western-derived concept of civil society. This book illuminates the complexity of modernization and nationalism in twentieth-century China, and provides a concrete case for comparative studies of professionalization and class formation across cultures.

Who will govern China after Jiang Zemin? What path will its new leaders chart in the early years of the twenty-first century? Drawing upon a wealth of both quantitative and qualitative data on the so-called fourth generation of leaders_those who were young during the Cultural Revolution_Cheng Li shows that this group is more diversified than previous generations in formative experiences, political solidarity, ideological conviction, and occupational background. The author explores the contradictions between these emerging leaders and their non-elite peers who were barred from education during the Mao era and now often are unemployed and disenchanted. The book concludes with the intriguing notion that this generation of leaders may have a better understanding of its peersO concerns and therefore may make the regime more accountable to its people, thus contributing to, rather than opposing, democratic development.

This work provides an in-depth and up-to-date examination of civil-military relations in China. It reflects the significant changes taking place in Chinese society and their impact on the civil-military dynamic, with particular attention to how the military will fit in with the new class of entrepreneurs. Rather than focusing exclusively on elite Party-Army relations, the book examines civil-military relations from various vantage points: at "the center" and in the provinces; between civilian leaders and military leaders; from a strictly military perspective and from a civilian perspective; and from the angle of specific issue areas. Chapters explore issues, such as the impact of AIDS, the defense budget, the emerging dynamic between the military and China's new leadership, resettling demobilized troops back into civilian life, and the role of the militia, reserve units, and other civilian groups. The contributors are highly respected specialists in China studies, including political scientists, historians, PLA specialists, and sociologists. They present a vibrant portrait of the new civil-military dynamic in the PRC within the complex social changes that China is exploring today.

The Revival of China's Entrepreneurial Class in Historical-Comparative Perspective: Prospects for a New Chinese Liberalism examines the evolution of China’s entrepreneurial class and prospects for entrepreneurial-driven political institutional change. Michael Drake posits that decades of economic reforms and social transformation have illuminated a fundamental contradiction in contemporary China—a rule-by-law closed political system governing over an emergent entrepreneurial class requiring property protection—that requires resolution. Drake argues that the Chinese Communist Party has one of two choices: crush the entrepreneurial class, and with it, economic growth and the party’s legitimacy, or cede to the entrepreneurs’ demands for the rule of law and political representation. Drake’s research shows the rise of liberal qualities—rationality, autonomy, property-law interests, political awareness, and political agency—among China’s emergent entrepreneurial class. As such, Drake argues that this liberal trajectory, in conjunction with a lack of viable alternatives for the party, will translate into a new Chinese liberalism, and ultimately, political change.

Examining Britain's imperial outposts in 1920s East Asia, this book explores the changes and challenges affecting the Royal Navy's third largest fleet, the China Station, as its crews fought to hold back the changing tides of fortune. Bridging the gap between high level naval strategy and everyday imperial culture, Heaslip highlights the importance of the China Station to the British imperial system, foreign policy and East Asian geopolitics, while also revealing the lived experiences of these imperial outposts. Following their immersion into a new world and the challenges they encountered along the way, it considers how its naval officers were perceived by the Chinese populations of the ports they visited, how the two communities interacted and what this meant at a time of 'peace'. Against the changing nature of Britain's informal empire in the 1920s, Gunboats, Empire and the China Station highlights the complex nature of naval operations in-between major conflicts, and calls into question how peaceful this peacetime truly was.