Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world- renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised.
Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world- renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised.
Creating the Intellectual redefines how we understand relations between intellectuals and the Chinese socialist revolution of the last century. Under the Chinese Communist Party, "the intellectual" was first and foremost a widening classification of individuals based on Marxist thought. The party turned revolutionaries and otherwise ordinary people into subjects identified as usable but untrustworthy intellectuals, an identification that profoundly affected patterns of domination, interaction, and rupture within the revolutionary enterprise. Drawing on a wide range of data, Eddy U takes the reader on a journey that examines political discourses, revolutionary strategies, rural activities, urban registrations, workplace arrangements, organized protests, and theater productions. He lays out in colorful detail the formation of new identities, forms of organization, and associations in Chinese society. The outcome is a compelling picture of the mutual constitution of the intellectual and the Chinese socialist revolution, the legacy of which still affects ways of seeing, thinking, acting, and feeling in what is now a globalized China.
This book offers a new analysis of the intellectual and the Chinese socialist revolution. Under the Chinese Communist Party, the intellectual was never simply an outspoken scholar, a browbeaten artist, a supportive official, or any kind of person facing an increasingly powerful political regime. The intellectual was first and foremost a widening classification of people based on Marxist thought. As the party turned revolutionaries and otherwise perfectly ordinary people into subjects identified locally as intellectuals, their appearance profoundly affected the political thinking of the party elites and how they organized the revolution, as well as postrevolutionary Chinese society. Drawing on a wide range of data, Eddy U takes the reader on a fascinating journey that examines political discourses, revolutionary strategies, rural activities, official registrations, organized protests, work organizations, and theater productions. The book lays out in colorful details the formation of new identities and new patterns of organization, association, and calculus. The outcome is a compelling picture of the mutual constitution of the intellectual and the Chinese socialist revolution, the impact of which is still visible in globalized China.
Review of Christian Sorace, Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere (eds.), Afterlives of Chinese Communism. Political Concepts from Mao to Xi, Acton: ANU Press and Verso Books, 404 pages, (ISBN 9781788734769).
When after World War II Communism emerged as a powerful force in China, it engendered great puzzlement on the part of many people. First of all, China did not (and still does not) fit the classical example of an industrialized country with a politically conscious proletariat which Karl Marx envisioned as the breeding ground for communism.
Similarities and differences will be demonstrated between Chinese and Hungarian party-state systems. We define the role of reforms in the self-reproduction of both party-states. We shall demonstrate how different patterns of power distribution lead to the implementation of different reforms. We shall describe how these different reforms have created the Hungarian "Goulash communism" and the "Chinese style" reforms. We shall also explain the conditions that have lead "Goulash communism" to political transformation first in Hungary accompanied by economic crisis, and "Chinese style reforms" to economic transformation first in China, accompanied by macroeconomic growth.
This paper is a brief review on social situation in Tanah Melayu (Malaysia), specifically in the state of Kedah, prior to World War Two. Generally, the situation and social understanding in Kedah was influenced by the influx of immigrants especially the Chinese who came for economic reasons. These immigrants brought with them the culture and the way of life in the Mainland China. This, in a way, affected people's lives in Kedah. With the strong support from the Chinese, communism began to make its mark among other ethnic groups in the society. The Triads culture became strong and it lead to other anti-national activities. This, in turn, affected the economic, political, and social influence. All these aspects seemed to have become the foundation of a bigger influence after the surrender of Japan. They have also become the foundation for social equality and differences during the Emergency period from 1948-1960.
The events in Tiananmen Square, in June 1989, represent without any doubt a countertendency compared with the changes of the last period of the Cold War. The new opening up of China by Deng Xiaoping brought not only a new boost to the economy of this country, but sowed the seeds of popular revolt against the orthodoxy and the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. It is possible to reconstruct the different phases of this revolution thanks to US Embassy documents and to those that are not under control of party leaders. Since "the Spring of Beijing", these various phases have brought up the expansion of a democratic movement whose protagonists were, in particular, Chinese students. The claims for greater freedom, a better political participation, and more incisive radical reforms clashed with the internal struggle among party leaders and ended up with the massacre of Tiananmen Square, on June 4, 1989
The goal of this paper is to take a comprehensive look into the history and functioning of state-owned enterprise (SOEs) in China, in order to examine the extent of their role in the Chinese economy. After analyzing the size and productivity of these SOEs, the conclusion is one of pessimism toward the reality of China's economic growth rate, and the efficacy of SOEs. As a crucial part of China's economic planning, SOEs are destabilizing the Chinese economy, and are threatening the viability of China becoming a stable developed nation. First, the historical background from which SOEs rose to dominate the economy will be laid out to address how the foundations of the China's economic model are based in Communist protectionism. A basic description of state-owned enterprise will be presented, and the nature of economic reform in China will be addressed. Assertions laid out by Chinese optimists will be examined in the context of political imperatives. Second, a detailed analysis will examine the operations of China's state owned banks with regard to SOEs. The specific issue of non-performing loans (NPLs) and inequitable lending practices will be discussed as a major part of the Chinese financial sector. Third, the inefficiencies of SOEs will be explained through quantitative analysis and a political lens. A case study on the Chinese airline industry will be used as support for the evidence put forth. Fourth, the corruption of and within SOEs following the reform efforts of the Communist Party will be highlighted. Finally, the inconsistency the before mentioned facets have caused in the legal affairs of enterprises will be presented, and a prescription for future reform will be put forward. ; China, Economy, SOEs, Communism, Reform, TVEs, NPLs, Business Law, Corruption ; A Thesis submitted to the Department of International Affairs In partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in the Major. ; Spring Semester, 2013. ; April 19, 2013.
On cover: HRRI Project "Chinese Documents Project." ; Studies in Chinese communism, series 1, no. 1, 1952. ; Bibliographical footnotes. ; Mode of access: Internet.
Proponents of deliberative democracy argue that it enhances procedural democracy by bringing policymakers and the public closer together and by generating new alternatives rather than just choices. But what role does deliberation play under autocracy, where basic democratic institutions are absent? In China, citizens cannot elect their governments but are regularly consulted on matters of governance and policymaking. For example, all national and many sub-national policy initiatives in China currently proceed through at least one round of public consultation prior to adoption. Why do non-democratic regimes consult their citizens? One explanation is that consultation is simply "window dressing" for an otherwise authoritarian decision-making process. Indeed, no new political actors are empowered, the outcomes are non- binding, and critical comments can be kept private. But why then is the Chinese regime investing resources into a politically inconsequential activity? Similarly, why are hundreds of thousands of citizens voicing comments and criticisms if they have no effect? I argue that consultative autocracy is more than window dressing. In particular, I argue that public consultation helps inform and legitimate the policymaking process, contributing to more durable and legitimate policy outcomes. Testing these arguments required overcoming several empirical challenges. For example, public consultation is not randomly distributed, and policy outcomes are issue- specific, making them difficult to generalize. To address non-random selection, I created an extensive sub-national policy database that allows me to identify the effects of consultation across unique policy initiatives implemented in different parts of the country. To proxy for policy outcomes, I measured amendment and repeal rates, which should be lower among more effective policies. I find that no policies adopted with consultation have yet been repealed and that their amendment rates are significantly lower as well. To measure the legitimizing effects of consultation, I took advantage of a budget deliberation experiment in Zeguo, China, where participants are randomly selected to participate in annual budget deliberations. In January 2012, after multiple interviews with political leaders and legislative delegates in Zeguo, I organized a survey of the participant cohort along with a representative sample of non-participants. Survey results demonstrate that approval for local government and its policies is significantly higher among participants than non-participants but that consultation has no positive effect on views towards the central leadership
On cover: HHRI Project "Chinese Documents Project." ; "A revision of Series III, no. 1, 1953, of 'Studies in Chinese communism' produced under contract no. AF 33(038)-25075." ; Bibliographical footnotes. ; Mode of access: Internet.
International audience ; In The Administration of Fear (2012), Virilio returns to his old 1977 theme of speed as the driving force in politics. For Virilio, modern power involves ever-accelerating speed, but in this work he takes it further by arguing there is a 'cult of speed', which is not progress but its ideology, whereby fear is hidden by the ideology of progress. Speed's impact is mediated by affect, which produces social effects, such as loss of continuous action, ecological destruction, devitalisation, placelessness, fractal fragmentation, and group nationalisms or communalisms. This situation becomes particularly dangerous when the affective structures, which become viral are those-so common in turbo-capitalism-of fear, panic and hatred. As a result of telepresence, there is a 'synchronisation of emotion' which goes beyond the earlier standardisation of opinion. Virilio christens this regime the 'communism of affect' leading to new forms of politics: transition from a democracy of opinion to a democracy of emotion. In this article, we elaborate on this line of argumentation, and then discuss how Virilio may resonate and inspire analysis of contemporary political phenomena, such as affective polarisation in anti-immigrant fears driving the far right in Anglo-Saxon politics, securitisation in France, developmentalist acceleration and telepresence in India, and the dystopian extremes of the Chinese model.
Chinese nationalism began to rise when the Cold War ended in 1989. During the first two decades of twenty-first century, Chinese nationalism as strong force has impacted Chinese public opinion as well as government decisions to a large extent. In the eyes of Chinese political elites, nationalism is a force for unity that can keep China together as the communism has lost its appeal. This study explores factors which best explain the origins of Chinese nationalism in our era. For this purpose, I utilize qualitative analysis of nationalist discourse and deeds to gauge nationalist sentiment among the contemporary Chinese people and its political elites. The evidence suggests that nationalism in China mainly comes from Chinese great pride in its major economic achievements in recent decades, the perceived injustice and insults done to China when it was dismembered by the imperialist powers in nineteenth and the first half of twentieth centuries, the current provocative moves against the rising China, and the Chinese government's propaganda campaign.
