9 articles on greater China's politics, economy, society and culture.
China watchers are to Third Plenums of Chinese Communist Party Congresses as film buffs are to the Oscars. One reason is the storied history of Third Plenum Decisions in the post-Mao era. Two of them marked...
The Eighteenth Party Congress’ Third Plenary Session’s Decision maps out the country’s plan for cultural and media development. There is nothing on the surface that suggests a radical departure from the tight...
Reforming the Financial Industry The Eighteenth Party Congress’ Third Plenary Session’s Decision of November 2013 lists a new round of financial reforms aimed at introducing more market forces into the...
One issue that stands out in the Decision concerns the relationship between market forces and the power of government in the Chinese economy. In previous government statements or reports, the market was...
Stress on Internal Stability and National Security The political direction outlined by the Third Plenum in November 2013 for China’s international relations embodied a contradiction. It coupled a call for...
Introduction In 2008 and 2009 if I asked a Beijing taxi driver or anyone on the street about air quality on a hazy day, I was normally told that it was fog. No matter how much I tried to convince them that it...
State-building seems to be a never-ending task for the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Since its founding, the government has revamped its administrative system more than 10 times. Reform has sped up...
The Communist Party of China has been grappling with corruption almost from its birth. Corruption was one of the major issues during the 1989 anti-government demonstrations. The leadership, in fact, responded...
In November 1978, Deng Xiaoping presided over the Third Plenum of the Eleventh National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which launched China’s reform and opening up. Thirty five years later, the...
Quarterly essays on greater China by scholars who study the region closely, plus notice of our Atlanta events. Published continuously since 2002.