China in the 21st century : what everyone needs to know PDF
Preview China in the 21st century : what everyone needs to know
CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd i 4/25/2013 3:42:59 PM This page intentionally left blank CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW 2 nd E dition JEFFREY N. WASSERSTROM With Contributions by MAURA ELIZABETH CUNNINGHAM 1 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd iii 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom 2010, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. The Library of Congress has cataloged the first edition as follows: Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. China in the 21st century : what everyone needs to know/ Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–539447–4; 978–0–19–539412–2 (pbk.) 1. China—History—21st century. I. Title. II. Title: China in the twenty-first century. DS779.4.W376 2010 951.06—dc22 2009045415 ISBN for 2013 edition: 978–0–19–997496–2 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd iv 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI AUTHOR’S NOTE XV MAP XX Part I Historical Legacies 1 1 Schools of Thought 3 Who was Confucius? 3 What were Confucius’s core ideas? 4 What was his political vision? 4 How important was history to Confucius? 5 Has Confucius always been venerated in China? 6 Was Confucius celebrated in his own times? 7 When did the ideas of Confucius gain infl uence? 9 How was Confucius viewed a century ago? 10 Is Confucianism a religion? 11 How did Confucius fare after 1949? 12 Why is Confucius back in favor? 13 How exactly has the regime used Confucius in recent years? 15 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd v 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM vi Contents Did Confucianism hinder imperial China’s economic development? 18 Does China have an indigenous “democratic” tradition? 20 What is the Chinese term for democracy and what exactly does it mean? 21 2 Imperial China 23 What were the main early dynasties? 23 How did dynasties rule? 24 What was the “dynastic cycle?” 25 What were the political implications of this cyclical view? 26 Were all dynasties the same? 26 How did dynasties interact with foreign countries? 28 What was the Opium War? 29 What impact did the Opium War have? 30 Why did the Qing Dynasty fall? 31 What internal developments weakened the Qing? 31 What was the signifi cance of peasant rebellions? 31 What was the Taiping Uprising? 33 Why was the 1894–1895 Sino–Japanese War so important? 34 What was the Boxer Rebellion? 35 How has this crisis been misunderstood? 35 How does the reputation of the crisis differ in China? 36 Why does this difference in views of the Boxers matter? 37 How did Qing rule fi nally end? 37 Is the Chinese Communist Party a new dynasty? 38 3 Revolutions and Revolutionaries 41 Who was Sun Yat-sen? 41 What happened to Sun after he became president? 42 What was the “Warlord era”? 42 What was the May 4th movement? 43 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd vi 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM Contents vii Who was the most important radical writer of the May 4th era? 44 How does the Communist Party view the May 4th era? 46 Why was the example of the Russian Revolution so important? 47 What was the First United Front? 47 Why was the May 30th movement important? 48 What was the Northern Expedition? 48 Who was Chiang Kai-shek? 49 What was the Long March? 50 What was the Rape of Nanjing? 52 How did the Communists beat the Nationalists? 52 What role have mass campaigns played in the People’s Republic of China? 54 What was the Resist America, Support Korea campaign? 55 What was the Hundred Flowers campaign? 56 What happened during the Anti-Rightist campaign? 57 How did women fare during the fi rst decade of the PRC? 58 What sort of people were Mao and his main allies? 59 How were Mao’s writings viewed? 61 What was the Great Leap Forward? 62 What was the Cultural Revolution? 63 What was the Gang of Four? 65 Why hasn’t Mao been repudiated by China’s current leaders? 66 What is the alternative to viewing Mao as a monster? 68 Is Mao seen in China as someone who made errors? 69 How do ordinary Chinese feel about Mao? 69 Part II The Present and the Future 73 4 From Mao to Now 75 Who was Deng Xiaoping? 75 Who were Deng’s successors? 77 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd vii 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM viii Contents What exactly did Deng do? 79 How is Deng viewed now? 79 What was the Democracy Wall movement? 80 What is the real story of the Tiananmen Uprising? 81 Why hasn’t the Chinese government changed its line on Tiananmen? 84 What effect did the fall of other Communist governments have on China? 85 How did China’s rulers avoid falling prey to the “Leninist extinction”? 87 How has the government responded to protests since 1989? 90 Why and how has the CCP suppressed the Falun Gong movement? 92 Who are the Chinese dissidents now? 93 Who is Liu Xiaobo? 96 What is the role of the Internet in political dissent? 97 What does the digital divide mean in China? 98 Is the Great Firewall of China a unique structure? 100 Why were the 2008 Olympics such a big deal for China? 101 What does the handling of the Beijing Games say about today’s China? 102 Will grand spectacles continue to be important to China? 103 What is the “One-Child Family” policy? 104 Was female infanticide encouraged to help limit population size? 106 Is contemporary China utterly unique? 107 What does China have in common with other countries? 109 5 US–China Misunderstandings 113 What is the most common thing Americans get wrong about China? 113 Why is China’s diversity overlooked? 114 How does ethnicity come into the picture? 115 How important are regional divides? 116 How important are age divides in China? 117 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd viii 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM Contents ix Is China still truly an atheist state? 118 Is China a Big Brother state? 119 What is the biggest source of Chinese misunderstanding of the United States? 122 How do US and Chinese views on Tibet differ? 123 6 The Future 127 Is China bent on world domination? 127 How likely is a war with Taiwan? 129 Will China become the world’s dominant economic power? 131 Will China, long thought of as a land of villages, soon be a land of cities? 132 Is China likely to become a democracy? 134 How will the Hu Jintao era be remembered? 135 How powerful is Chinese nationalism? 136 What kind of government will China have in a decade? 137 What big challenges lie ahead for the CCP? 139 What big issues relating to the environment and energy does China face? 140 Why are corruption and credibility concerns for the CCP? 141 How can the United States and China adjust to an era in which they are the two superpowers? 144 What other kinds of things do China and the United States have in common? 147 Is this an argument for Americans to refrain from all criticism of China? 148 NOTES 149 FURTHER READING 161 INDEX 173 00_Wasserstom_Prelims.indd ix 4/25/2013 3:43:00 PM
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