Yongnian Zheng

With mounting discontent due to widespread unemployment, corruption and misgovernment, the Ninth National People's Congress in March 2000 was a letdown. Significant though was Premier Zhu Rongji's announcement at the Congress of the leadership's decision to go west. While Zhu explained the policy shift as the government's attempt to develop the country's inland regions, many are skeptical, dismissing it as a camouflage for the premier's failure in the reform programmes introduced when he came to power. On the international front, with the US ambivalence in regard to China's WTO accession and China's apparent loss of grip on cross-straits relations, the future of the Jiang leadership appears to be in the balance. Against this background of neiyou waihuan (internal disturbance and external threats), will the Jiang-Zhu coalition be able to rise to the occasion and push through its many reform programmes, let alone retain its hold on power? China After the 2000 National People's Congress, (I) and (II) address this and related questions, giving an in-depth analysis of recent developments and changes in the power relations among China's top leaders, especially the Jiang-Zhu coalition.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of China’s drive for common prosperity from an insider’s perspective. While philosophers and economists have long debated issues of inequality and growth, and societies have evolved from industrial to post-industrial information economies, challenges related to poverty and inequality persist. Major European nations have transitioned from early capitalist societies to modern welfare states, yet similar issues remain unresolved. Professor Zheng Yongnian provides a unique insight into China’s approach to addressing these challenges through the lens of common prosperity. Drawing on newly published materials and empirical research, this book contrasts China's development model with Western welfare states, elucidating both the rationale behind and the implications of these differences. This translated version of Professor Zheng’s recent work, ????????? (originally published in Chinese), is an essential read for scholars and policymakers seeking to understand China’s strategy for achieving common prosperity.

In this important and hugely ambitious book, one of the world’s leading political scientists working on China demonstrates how Western views of China are flawed because the long tradition of Western scholarship studying China views China from the Western philosophical and intellectual perspective rather than viewing China on its own terms through the lens of China’s own long-established and reputable philosophical and intellectual tradition. Providing a deep analysis of Western scholarship on China, including work from Leibniz to Marx to Weber and then to Wittfogel, and a thorough account of the evolution of China’s own thinking about governance as expressed in the practices of successive Chinese dynasties, the book goes on to examine how the current Chinese body politic fits with and is the natural outcome of China’s own long, well-thought-through and well-practiced intellectual consideration of what the nature of civilized governance should be. By focusing on philosophical and intellectual approaches rather than on theoretical or methodological ones, the book shows how the huge and increasing disconnect between non-Chinese views of China and Chinese ones has come about.

In this important and hugely ambitious book, one of the world’s leading political scientists working on China demonstrates how Western views of China are flawed because the long tradition of Western scholarship studying China views China from the Western philosophical and intellectual perspective rather than viewing China on its own terms through the lens of China’s own long-established and reputable philosophical and intellectual tradition. Providing a deep analysis of Western scholarship on China, including work from Leibniz to Marx to Weber and then to Wittfogel, and a thorough account of the evolution of China’s own thinking about governance as expressed in the practices of successive Chinese dynasties, the book goes on to examine how the current Chinese body politic fits with and is the natural outcome of China’s own long, well-thought-through and well-practiced intellectual consideration of what the nature of civilized governance should be. By focusing on philosophical and intellectual approaches rather than on theoretical or methodological ones, the book shows how the huge and increasing disconnect between non-Chinese views of China and Chinese ones has come about.

The world has witnessed the rise of China, and there is a sustained debate on the China model. While some scholars believe that the China model is obsolete, others regard the China model as a threat to democracy. This book takes an empirical approach and regards the China model as it is and looks into different aspects of the China model, ranging from economic growth, social development, central-local relations to the development of internal pluralism, the rise of civil society and rural democracy. Given the fact that China’s reform and opening up since the late Deng Xiaoping has taken place in the context of globalization, the book draws implications of the China model for the world. Particularly, the book attempts to examine the impact of China’s socio-economic development model on democratization.

Focusing on the evolving relations between the state and market in the post-Mao reform era, Yongnian Zheng and Yanjie Huang present a theory of Chinese capitalism by identifying and analyzing three layers of the market system in the contemporary Chinese economy. These are, namely, a free market economy at the bottom, state capitalism at the top, and a middle ground in between. By examining Chinese economic practices against the dominant schools of Western political economy and classical Chinese economic thoughts, the authors set out the analytical framework of 'market in state' to conceptualize the market not as an autonomous self-regulating order but part and parcel of a state-centered order. Zheng and Huang show how state (political) principles are dominant over market (economic) principles in China's economy. As the Chinese economy continues to grow and globalize, its internal balance will likely have a large impact upon economies across the world.

Focusing on the evolving relations between the state and market in the post-Mao reform era, Yongnian Zheng and Yanjie Huang present a theory of Chinese capitalism by identifying and analyzing three layers of the market system in the contemporary Chinese economy. These are, namely, a free market economy at the bottom, state capitalism at the top, and a middle ground in between. By examining Chinese economic practices against the dominant schools of Western political economy and classical Chinese economic thoughts, the authors set out the analytical framework of 'market in state' to conceptualize the market not as an autonomous self-regulating order but part and parcel of a state-centered order. Zheng and Huang show how state (political) principles are dominant over market (economic) principles in China's economy. As the Chinese economy continues to grow and globalize, its internal balance will likely have a large impact upon economies across the world.

Will new information technologies, especially the Internet, bring freedom and democracy to authoritarian China? This study argues that the Internet has brought about new dynamics of socio-political changes in China, and that state power and social forces are transforming in Internet-mediated public space. Its findings are fourfold. First, the Internet empowers both the state and society. The Internet has played an important role in facilitating political liberalization, and made government more open, transparent, and accountable. Second, the Internet produces enormous effects which are highly decentralized and beyond the reach of state power. Third, the Internet has created a new infrastructure for the state and society in their engagement with (and disengagement from) each other. Fourth, the Internet produces a recursive relationship between state and society. The interactions between the state and society over the Internet end up reshaping both the state and society.

This book is the first attempt to conceptualize China's central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, China's central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles. Federalism as a functioning system in China is under studied. The author defines the political system existing in China as “de facto federalism”, and provides a detailed analysis of its sources and dynamics in the book. The system is mainly driven by two related factors — inter-governmental decentralization and globalization. While economic decentralization since the 1980s has led to the formation of de facto federalism, globalization since the 1990s has accelerated this process and generated increasingly high pressure on the Chinese leadership to institutionalize de facto federalism by various measures of selective recentralization.

Globalization has thrown up challenges and opportunities which all countries have to grapple with. In his 2004 book, Yongnian Zheng explores how China's leaders have embraced global capitalism and market-oriented modernization. He shows that with reform measures properly implemented, the nation-state can not only survive globalization, but can actually be revitalized through outside influence. To adapt to the globalized age, Chinese leaders have encouraged individual enterprise and the development of the entrepreneurial class. The state bureaucratic system and other important economic institutions have been restructured to accommodate a globalized market economy. In rebuilding the economic system in this way, Zheng observes that Chinese leaders have been open to the importation of Western ideas. By contrast, the same leaders are reluctant to import Western concepts of democracy and the rule of law. The author argues that, ultimately, this selectivity will impede China's progress in becoming a modern nation state.

With the new team of Chinese leaders at the helm following the successful hosting of the 16th Party Congress in November 2002, the attention of China's scholars has now shifted to the raft of challenges that await the new leadership. In the economic realm, there is unlikely to be any sharp changes in the direction of economic policy-making although the leadership faces a number of daunting issues, such as rising urban unemployment, potential rural unrest and the huge debt burden of state banks. In the political arena, power succession has only just begun even though leadership transition is almost complete. Jiang Zemin remains highly influential in his capacity as Chairman of the Central Military Commission. It is however unclear how the working relationship among the triumvirate Hu Jintao, Zeng Qinghong and Wen Jiabao will unfold. The jury is still out whether Hu Jintao can provide the leadership and vision to deal head-on with a number of burning issues, like corruption and the need for political reform.

How has China's post-Deng leadership governed the country? How have the changing social and political environments shifted the bases of political legitimacy? What strategies has Jiang Zemin adopted to cope with new circumstances in order to strengthen his leadership? What are the challenges these new reform measures have generated for the leadership? And how have domestic concerns constrained the leadership's intention in China's foreign relations? These are some of the questions which this volume attempts to address. The authors agree that Jiang Zemin is not a man without any political initiative. He has struggled to establish his own style of leadership, and to strengthen the legitimacy of his leadership by setting forth new rules and institutions for political games and by finding new measures to cope with new challenges. This collection of articles shows the success Jiang and his colleagues have had in strengthening their leadership; how the different reform measures have strengthened Jiang's rule; and how the ongoing reform has created new challenges for his regime.

What the Jiang Zemin leadership faced in 1999 can be characterized by a century-old Chinese saying, neiyou waihuan (literally, “internal disturbance and external threat”). What with the worst growth record in a decade, the Falun Gong sect's siege of Zhongnanhai, Nato's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, and Lee Teng-hui's new “two-state” theory, the Chinese leadership was under tremendous pressure throughout the year. Many have wondered if that leadership could still hold its own at the turn of the century. This volume provides the reader with an in-depth analysis of how the Chinese leadership coped with the crises during the year. Though there was fair success in managing those crises, serious crises lie ahead which could significantly impact the leadership. China's economic slowdown may be bottoming out, but increasing Party decay, a growing spiritual vacuum, and volatile cross-strait relations are likely to pose serious threats to the leadership.

This book explores the revival of Chinese nationalism in the 1990s, and analyses the ways in which the West deals with this phenomenon. Yongnian Zheng discusses the complicated nature of China’s new nationalism and presents the reader with a very different picture to that portrayed in Western readings of Chinese nationalism. He argues that China’s new nationalism has been a reaction to changes in the country’s international circumstances and can be regarded as a ‘voice’ over the existing unjustified international order. Zheng shows that the present Chinese leadership is pursuing strategies not to isolate China, but to integrate it into the international community. Based on the author’s extensive research in China, the book provides a set of provocative arguments against prevailing Western attitudes to and perceptions of China’s nationalism.