While China's economic rise is being watched closely around the world, the country's changing political landscape is intriguing as well. Forces unleashed by market reforms are profoundly recasting state-society relations. Will the Middle Kingdom transition to political democracy rapidly, slowly, or not at all? In China's Changing Political Landscape, leading experts examine the prospects for democracy in the world's most populous nation.
China's political transformation is unlikely to follow a linear path. There are a number of possible scenarios the nation's political development might follow, and which road China ultimately takes will depend on the interplay of socioeconomic forces, institutional developments, leadership succession, and demographic trends.
Cheng Li and his colleagues break down a number of issues in Chinese domestic politics, including changing leadership dynamics; the rise of business elites; increased demand for the rule of law; the commercialization of the media; and shifting civil-military relations. Although the contributors clash on many issues, they do agree on one thing: the political trajectory of this economic powerhouse will have profound implications, not only for 1.3 billion Chinese people, but also for the world as a whole.
Contributors: Richard Baum (UCLA), Chu Yun-han (National Taiwan University), Jacques deLisle (University of Pennsylvania), Erica Downs (Brookings), Joseph Fewsmith (Boston University), Jing Huang (Brookings), Alice Miller (Stanford University), James Mulvenon (Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis), Andrew Nathan (Columbia University), Barry Naughton (University of California-San Diego), Minxin Pei (Carnegie Endowment), David Shambaugh (George Washington University), Dorothy Solinger (University of California-Irvine), Yu Keping (Translation Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee).
