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 This page intentionally left blank CHINA IN THE 21ST CENTURY WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW JEFFREY N. WASSERSTROM 1 2010 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. 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 offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. 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, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. China in the 21st century : what everyone needs to know/ Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN978-0-19-539447-4;978-0-19-539412-2 (pbk.) 1. China—History—21st century. I. Title. II. Title: China in the twenty-fi rst century. DS779.4.W3762010 951.06—dc22 2009045415 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi AUTHOR’S NOTE xiv MAP xviii PART I: HISTORICAL LEGACIES 1 Schools of Thought 1 Who was Confucius? 1 What were Confucius’s core ideas? 2 What was his political vision? 2 How important was history to Confucius? 3 Has Confucius always been venerated in China? 4 Was Confucius celebrated in his own times? 5 When did the ideas of Confucius gain infl uence? 7 How was Confucius viewed a century ago? 8 Is Confucianism a religion? 9 How has Confucius fared since 1949? 10 Why is Confucius back in favor? 11 How exactly is the new regime using Confucius? 13 Did Confucianism hinder imperial China’s economic development? 14 vi Contents Does China have an indigenous “democratic” tradition? 16 What is the Chinese term for democracy and what exactly does it mean? 17 2 Imperial China 19 What were the main early dynasties? 19 How did dynasties rule? 20 What was the “dynastic cycle”? 21 What were the political implications of this cyclical view? 22 Were all dynasties the same? 22 How did dynasties interact with foreign countries? 24 What was the Opium War? 25 Why did the Qing Dynasty fall? 26 What internal developments weakened the Qing? 27 What was the signifi cance of peasant rebellions? 27 What impact did the Opium War have? 28 What was the Taiping Uprising? 29 Why was the 1894–1895 War with Japan so important? 30 What was the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901)? 30 How has this crisis been misunderstood? 31 How does the reputation of the crisis differ in China? 32 Why does this difference in views of the Boxers matter? 32 How did Qing rule fi nally end? 33 Is the Chinese Communist Party a new dynasty? 34 3 Revolutions and Revolutionaries 36 Who was Sun Yat-sen? 36 What happened to Sun after he became president? 37 What was the “Warlord era”? 37 What was the May 4th movement? 38 Contents vii Who was the most important radical writer of the May 4th era? 39 How does the Communist Party view the May 4th era? 41 Why was the example of the Russian Revolution so important? 42 What was the First United Front? 42 Why was the May 30th movement important? 43 What was the Northern Expedition? 43 Who was Chiang Kai-shek? 44 What was the Long March? 45 What was the Rape of Nanjing? 46 How did the Communists beat the Nationalists? 47 What role have mass campaigns played in the People’s Republic of China? 49 What were some important early mass campaigns? 50 What was the Resist America, Support Korea campaign? 51 What was the Hundred Flowers campaign? 52 What happened during the Anti-Rightist campaign? 53 What sort of people were Mao and his main allies? 53 How were Mao’s writings viewed? 55 What was the Great Leap Forward? 56 What was the Cultural Revolution? 57 What was the Gang of Four? 59 Why hasn’t Mao been repudiated by China’s current leaders? 59 What is the alternative to viewing Mao as a monster? 61 Is Mao seen in China as someone who made errors? 62 How do ordinary Chinese feel about Mao? 63 PART II: THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE 4 From Mao to Now 67 Who was Deng Xiaoping? 67 Who were Deng’s successors? 69 viii Contents What exactly did Deng do? 69 How is Deng viewed now? 70 What was the Democracy Wall movement? 71 What is the real story of the Tiananmen Uprising? 72 Why hasn’t the Chinese government changed its line on Tiananmen? 75 What effect did the fall of other Communist governments have on China? 76 How did China’s rulers avoid falling prey to the “Leninist extinction”? 78 How has the government responded to protests since 1989? 80 Why and how has the CCP suppressed the Falun Gong movement? 81 Who are the Chinese dissidents now? 82 What is the role of the Internet in political dissent? 84 What does the digital divide mean in China? 85 Why were the 2008 Olympics such a big deal for China? 86 What was unusual about China’s preparations for the 2008 Olympics? 87 What does the handling of the Olympics say about today’s China? 88 Will grand spectacles continue to be important to China? 91 Why hold an Expo so soon after the Olympics? 91 What is the “One-Child Family” policy? 93 Was female infanticide encouraged to help limit population size? 95 Is contemporary China utterly unique? 96 What does China have in common with other countries? 98 Is the Great Firewall of China a unique structure? 100 5 U.S.–China Misunderstandings 103 What is the most common thing Americans get wrong about China? 103 Why is China’s diversity overlooked? 104 How does ethnicity come into the picture? 105 How important are regional divides? 106 How important are age divides in China? 107 Is China still truly an atheist state? 108 Contents ix Is China a Big Brother state? 109 What is the biggest source of Chinese misunderstanding of the United States? 112 How do U.S. and Chinese views on Tibet differ? 113 6 The Future 116 Is China bent on world domination? 116 How likely is a war with Taiwan? 118 Will China become the world’s dominant economic power? 120 Will China, long thought of as a land of villages, soon be a land of cities? 121 Is China likely to become a democracy? 123 How powerful is Chinese nationalism? 123 What kind of government will China have in a decade? 125 What big challenges lie ahead for the CCP? 126 What big issues relating to the environment and energy does China face? 127 Why is endemic corruption such a serious problem? 129 How can the United States and China adjust to an era in which they are the two superpowers? 131 What other kinds of things do China and the United States have in common? 133 Is this an argument for Americans to refrain from all criticism of China? 134 NOTES 137 FURTHER READING 147 INDEX 157
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