The Early Stage Of People S Republic Of China

Using a unique interdisciplinary, cultural-institutional analysis, Politics of Control is the first comprehensive study of how, in the early decades of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party reshaped people’s minds using multiple methods of control. With newly available archival material, internal circulars, memoirs, interviews, and site visits, the book explores the fascinating world of mass media, book publishing, education, religion, parks, museums, and architecture during the formative years of the republic. When the Communists assumed power in 1949, they projected themselves as not only military victors but also as peace restorers and cultural protectors. Believing that they needed to manage culture in every arena, they created an interlocking system of agencies and regulations that was supervised at the center. Documents show, however, that there was internal conflict. Censors, introduced early at the Beijing Daily, operated under the “twofold leadership” of municipal-level editors but with final authorization from the Communist Party Propaganda Department. Politics of Control looks behind the office doors, where the ideological split between Party chairman Mao Zedong and head of state Liu Shaoqi made pragmatic editors bite their pencil erasers and hope for the best. Book publishing followed a similar multi-tier system, preventing undesirable texts from getting into the hands of the public. In addition to designing a plan to nurture a new generation of Chinese revolutionaries, the party-state developed community centers that served as cultural propaganda stations. New urban parks were used to stage political rallies for major campaigns and public trials where threatening sects could be attacked. A fascinating part of the story is the way in which architecture and museums were used to promote ethnic unity under the Chinese party-state umbrella. Besides revealing how interlocking systems resulted in a pervasive method of control, Politics of Control also examines how this system was influenced by the Soviet Union and how, nevertheless, Chinese nationalism always took precedence. Chang-tai Hung convincingly argues that the PRC’s formative period defined the nature of the Communist regime and its future development. The methods of cultural control have changed over time, but many continue to have relevance today.

Tracing the prolonged transformation of modern China from 1949 to 1976—or from the founding of People's Republic of China to the end of the Cultural Revolution—this account chronicles the economic and political history of modern China. It provides rich details on China's economic growth pattern, the process of industrialization, and its unique five-year-plan system, and elaborates on China's political life based on penetrating analyses and profound historical events.

This illuminating work examines the social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of the Communist takeover of China. Instead of dwelling on elite politics and policy-making processes, Dilemmas of Victory seeks to understand how the 1949-1953 period was experienced by various groups, including industrialists, filmmakers, ethnic minorities, educators, rural midwives, philanthropists, stand-up comics, and scientists. A stellar group of authors that includes Frederic Wakeman, Elizabeth Perry, Sherman Cochran, Perry Link, Joseph Esherick, and Chen Jian shows that the Communists sometimes achieved a remarkably smooth takeover, yet at other times appeared shockingly incompetent. Shanghai and Beijing experienced it in ways that differed dramatically from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Dalian. Out of necessity, the new regime often showed restraint and flexibility, courting the influential and educated. Furthermore, many policies of the old Nationalist regime were quietly embraced by the new Communist rulers. Based on previously unseen archival documents as well as oral histories, these lively, readable essays provide the fullest picture to date of the early years of the People's Republic, which were far more pluralistic, diverse, and hopeful than the Maoist decades that followed.

Despite the significant progress it had achieved in the past 60 years, especially in the past 30 years since Deng Xiaoping's reform initiatives in the late 1970s, China faces daunting challenges today. These challenges include, among others, a rigid political system that does not match economic vibrancy, uneven economic growth and widening income gap, a graying population, environmental degradation, potential social instability, ethnic tensions and separatist movement, poor international image, and military modernization. Based on papers originally presented at an international conference held at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC), this book provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative assessment of the PRC's political, economic, social, ethnic, energy, security, military, diplomatic and other developments and challenges today. Contributed by scholars and experts in political science, international relations, economics, public administration, history, mass communication, psychology, and diplomacy, the book focuses on the efforts needed by China to grow in a sustainable manner and to become a respected global power. With each chapter addressing a different and yet an inter-related issue of the PRC's development, this book aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding of key challenges the country faces today as it strives to become a global power.

From its founding 65 years ago, the People's Republic of China has evolved from an important yet chaotic and impoverished state whose power was more latent than real into a great power on the cusp of possessing the largest economy in the world. Its path from the 1949 revolution to the present has been filled with twists and turns, including internal upheavals, a dramatic break with the Soviet Union, the 1989 revolution wave, and various wars and quasi-wars against India, the USSR, Vietnam, and South Korea. Throughout it all, international pressures have been omnipresent, forcing the regime to periodically shift course. In short, the evolution of the PROC in world politics is an epic story and one of the most important developments in modern world history. Yet to date, there has been no authoritative history of China's foreign relations. John Garver's monumental China's Quest not only addresses this gap; it will almost certainly serve as the definitive work on the topic for years to come. Garver, one of the world's leading scholars of Chinese foreign policy, covers a vast amount of ground and threads a core argument through the entirety of his account: domestic political concerns-regime survival in particular-have been the primary force driving the People's Republic's foreign policy agenda. The objective of communist regime survival, he argues, transcends the more rudimentary pursuit of national interests that realists focus on. Indeed, from 1949 onward, domestic politics has been integral to the PROC's foreign policy choices. Over the decades, the regime's decisions in the realm of international politics have been dictated concerns about internal stability. In the early days of the regime, Mao and other part leaders were concerned with surviving in the face of American aggression. Later, they came to see the post-Stalinist Soviet model as a threat to their revolutionary program and initiated a stunning break with Khrushchev regime. Finally, the collapse of other communist regimes in and after 1989 radically altered their relationships with capitalist powers, and again preserving regime stability in a world where communism has been largely abandoned became paramount. China's Quest, the result of over a decade of research, writing, and analysis, is both sweeping in breadth and encyclopedic in detail. Quite simply, it will be essential for any student or scholar with a strong interest in China's foreign policy.

In 2009 the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies convened a major conference to discuss the health and longevity of China’s ruling system and to consider a fundamental question: After three decades of internal strife and turmoil, followed by an era of reform, entrepreneurialism, and internationalization, is the PRC here for the dynastic long haul? Bringing together scholars and students of China from around the world, the gathering witnessed an energetic exchange of views on four interrelated themes: polities, social transformations, wealth and well-being, and culture, belief, and practice. Edited and expanded from the original conference papers, the wide-ranging essays in this bilingual volume remain true to the conference’s aim: to promote open discussion of the past, present, and future of the People’s Republic of China.

During its fifty years of existence the People's Republic of China has seen dramatic changes, from the proclamation of the independent state through the period of the Communist Revolution, the Cultural Revolution, the Reform Period. These changes are analysed from the political, economic and social points of view, chllaenging accepted orthodoxy. Throughout, the emphasis is on change in the context of contemporary China, and as part of the Chinese Communist Party's search for paths to development.