Western Perspectives On The People S Republic Of China

How have Westerners seen the People's Republic of China over the years? The question raises many important issues, which this book aims to present, analyze and explain. The basic conclusion is that Western perspectives are somewhat more complex than simply viewing China's realities. Involved also are politics and power relations, trends in journalism and scholarship, as well as individual and group personalities and psychologies. Based on extensive personal experiences in China dating back to 1964 and wide-ranging travel in Tibet and ethnic regions since the 1980s, the author attempts to distinguish trends in different Western countries. However, most of the material will concern the United States, which has been the dominant contributor to Western perspectives during the whole period of concern to this book. The perspectives are taken up by topic, including politics, economy, society, and ethnic minorities. Inherent in each topic is the way cultures see and react towards each other. Images and perspectives can affect policy, and have done so many times in the past, which adds to the importance of this book. It also takes up questions of the sources of Western perspectives, both in terms of direct sources, such as newspapers, television or the internet, and deeper ones, such as social values and temperament. Contents:IntroductionHistorical BackgroundPolitical and International Relations Perspectives on China, 1949–1971Trends in Political and Foreign Relations Perspectives on China, 1971–2001Political and General Western Perspectives on China in the Twenty-First CenturyPerspectives on the Chinese Economy, Population Policy and Environment to the End of the Twentieth CenturyThe Twenty-First Century: Perspectives on the Chinese Economy, Population Issues and EnvironmentSocio-cultural Perspectives on the People's Republic of ChinaPerspectives on the Ethnic MinoritiesConclusion Readership: Undergraduates, graduates, academics and researchers who are interested in Chinese politics, economy and society, especially its ethnic minorities. Keywords:Political and Foreign Relations;Chinese Economy;Population Policy and Environment;Socio-cultural Images;Ethnic MinoritiesKey Features:The book deals with a range of perspectives/images on the People's Republic of China, including the highly important and controversial topic of Western perspectives on the ethnic minorities, especially Tibet and the TibetansThe book incorporates the author's extensive personal experiences in the People's Republic dating back to 1964, and his extensive travel in Tibet and ethnic regions since the 1980s

China is on the rise in the globalized world. The relationship between China and the United States has become the most important global issue in the twenty-first century. It is urgent to understand what is happening in China and where China is heading. However, there are many misconceptions about China in the West, which affect Westerners’ ability to objectively understand China, and, ultimately influence the making of foreign policy toward China. The author attempts to challenge the misconceptions coming from both Western societies and China, and offer an integrated picture of contemporary China through systematically examining the major aspects of contemporary Chinese society and culture with the most recent data, and presents convincing arguments in eighteen chapters for spurring mutual understanding between China and the West. The author intends this book to be an interdisciplinary and comprehensive guide to China for a general audience, and it covers a wide variety of topics, including history, family, population, Chinese women, economy, environmental issues, politics, religion, media, U.S.-China relations, and other subjects. This book demonstrates the author’s extensive research and thoughtful examination of many sides of controversial issues related to China with a nice balance of Western and Chinese scholarship. This is one of the few that are authored by scholars who originate from China and have their professional career in the United States, but it is distinctive from the rest of studies on this subject in that the author is committed to examining today’s China from Chinese as well as Western perspectives. This is not only a scholarly book, but also is suitable for general classes on China.

China's enormous size, vast population, abundant natural resources, robust economy, and modern military demonstrate that the nation has emerged as a great world power. Inside China's Grand Strategy: The Perspective from the People's Republic analyzes China's economic, social, political, and military development, assessing the extent of China's dominance. Highly regarded Chinese scholar Ye Zicheng offers a rare insider's perspective on the country's geopolitical ambitions and strategic thinking. Inside China's Grand Strategy argues that China's primary obstacle to achieving enduring status as a world power is its domestic state of affairs. Ye examines the impact of unemployment, corruption, massive economic gaps between classes, population size, strains on natural and labor resources, environmental degradation, and other issues that impede China's continuing development. Some analysts claim that repressive domestic policies threaten the country's goal of modernization, but Ye points to China's recent inclusion in the G-20 as an indicator of future success. Ye contends that China's progress hinges on many factors: peaceful development, extensive governmental reform with a system of checks and balances, social and economic development on the mainland, and strategies for reunification, especially with Taiwan. Ye asserts that military pressure may be required to integrate Taiwanese separatist forces but advises that development should remain China's primary goal, because it will eventually lead to unification. Although Ye argues that democracy is the only way to repair the corrupt systems that perpetuate economic inequality, he specifies that a Western-style democracy is not what China needs. As the United States' destiny is increasingly bound to China's growth and American policies are being evaluated in the realm of geopolitics, it is important to gauge and understand China's ambitions. An authoritative and up-to-date analysis from within Chinese society, Inside China's Grand Strategy is an indispensible resources for Western scholars, offering a new window on Chinese development.

Many researchers and China observers would agree that understanding how China pursues global communication is critical for assessing its growing soft power. While soft power as a concept has, in many ways, become almost inextricably linked with the PRC's (People's Republic of China) international diplomacy of the twenty-first century, the specific role of global media within soft power diplomacy and the corresponding influence of Western mediated public diplomacy within China is a lacuna that has remained largely unexplored. Moreover, the different Chinese and Western perspectives on the influence of global media and public diplomacy on Sino-Western relations, and the changing role of global media on this crucial aspect of international politics, have not yet been critically examined. This volume presents a broad social science audience with recent innovative scholarship and research findings on global media and public diplomacy concerning Sino-Western relations. It focuses on the implicit nexus between global media and public diplomacy, and their actual utilisation in and impact on the shifting relationships between China and the West. Special attention is given to the changing nature of globalised media in both China and Western nations, and how globalised media is influencing, shaping and changing international politics. The contributions delve deeply into both theory and practice, and focus especially upon the analysis of several key aspects of the issue from both Chinese and Western perspectives. This combination of approaches distinguishes the volume from most other published works on the topic, and greatly enriches our knowledge base in this important contemporary field.

This book argues that constructivism and realism, two prominent theories of scholarly inquiry in a variety of fields, both have their strengths and weaknesses as descriptive models of how research is conducted and written up and as normative models for improving inquiry.

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.