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How do we understand the evolution of central-local relations in China during the reform period? This book addresses this question by focusing on eight separate issues in which the central-local relationship has been especially salient – government finance, investment control, regional development, administrative zoning, implementation, culture, social welfare and international relations. Each chapter introduces a sector and the way the center and various local governments have shared or divided power over the different periods of China’s reform era. The balance of power is gauged dynamically over time to measure the extent to which one level of government dominates, influences or shares power in making decisions in each of these particular domains, as well as what is likely to occur in the foreseeable future. The authors assess the winners and losers of these changes among key actors in China’s society. The result provides a dynamic view of China’s changing power relations.
Education has long been highly valued in China, and continues to be highly valued, both by the state, which appreciates the value of education for maintaining China's economic rise, and by parents, who, affected by the One Child Policy, devote a large proportion of their incomes to their one child's education. This book explores current systems of teacher management in China and assesses their effectiveness. It charts the development of China's education system, outlines present day human resource management methods in Chinese schools, including practices for recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewards, both pay and non-financial rewards, and describes recent changes and innovations. The book concludes that a high performance work system, enhanced by traditional paternalistic humanised management and by pragmatism, predominates, with important consequences for teachers’ jobs and performance, and for the quality of students' school life.
Outside China, little is known about the process and implications of the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside (UMDC) Movement, a Chinese state policy from 1967 to 1979 in which more than 16 million secondary school-leavers in different cities were relocated to rural areas. The Movement shaped the lives of these young people and assigned them a shared group identity: Zhiqing, or the Educated Youth. This book provides new research on Zhiqing, who were born and brought up after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and regarded as a lost generation during the Cultural Revolution. Presenting a remembrance of their tortuous life trajectories, the book investigates their...
Unlike many studies of social attitudes, which are based on large scale quantitative surveys, or which focus on the attitude of elites, this book considers the views of ordinary people, and is based on in-depth, qualitative interviews. This approach results in rich, nuanced data, and is especially helpful for highlighting ambivalent attitudes, where respondents may hold positive and negative views on a particular topic, views which are liable to change. The book examines attitudes on a range of subjects of current importance, including views on nationalism and internationalism, housing preferences, and educational ambitions. Throughout, the book explores how far attitudes are influenced by traditional Chinese values or by the neo-liberal outlook fostered by recent reforms, and concludes that materialism and individualism have increased.
This book examines, comprehensively, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, the regional organisation which consists of China, Russia and most of the Central Asian countries. It charts the development of the Organisation from the establishment of its precursor, the Shanghai Five, in 1996, through its own foundation in 2001 to the present. It considers the foreign policy of China and of the other member states, showing how the interests and power of the member states determine the Organisation’s institutions, functional development and relations with non-members. It explores the Organisation’s activities in the fields of politics and security co-operation, economic and energy co-operation, and in culture and education, and concludes with a discussion of how the Organisation is likely to develop in future. Throughout, the book sets the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the context of China’s overall strategy towards Central Asia.
The global spread of Islamic movements and the ascendance of a Chinese state that limits religious freedom have aroused anxieties about integrating Islam and protecting religious freedom around the world. Focusing on violent movements like the so-called Islamic State and Uygur separatists in China’s Xinjiang Province threatens to drown out the alternatives presented by apolitical and inwardly focused manifestations of transnational Islamic revival popular among groups like the Hui, China’s largest Muslim minority. This book explores how Muslim revivalists in China’s Qinghai Province employ individual agency to reconcile transnational notions of religious orthodoxy with the materialist ...
A secure supply of energy is essential for all nations, to sustain their economy, and indeed their very survival. This subject is especially important in the case of China, as China’s booming economy and consequent demand for energy is affecting the whole world, and in turn potentially driving realignments in international relations. Moreover, as this book argues, energy security should be considered more broadly, to include issues of sustainability, environmental protection and the domestic organisation of energy policy and energy supply. This book presents a comprehensive picture of China’s energy security. It covers all energy sectors – coal, oil, gas, renewables; international relations with all major sources of energy supply – the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa; and key areas of domestic policy making and supply.
One of the most dramatic events in the global economy over the past few decades has been the rise of China as a global economic power. From humble beginnings in the late 1970s, the policy shift in China from a planned to market economy has led to economic growth of tremendous speed. This book examines the changes taking place in China’s economy today and the impacts of these changes in China and abroad. The central theme is that the rapid economic growth has come at a cost, as many problems have emerged as a result in China’s economy and society, including a dramatic rich-poor gap, labour issues, problems in the banking sector and severe inflation in the cost of housing, as well as chall...
This book offers the first exploration into the development of social enterprises in the Greater China region, consisting of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Mainland China. By drawing on the research and experience of over a dozen scholars and practitioners from across the area, it offers a picture of how a strong State can play an important role as a catalyst in developing the social entrepreneurship sector, particularly by legitimizing it. It delves into the role and impact of institutions and policy on the development of social enterprises, and explains how micro and macro factors might interact in influencing social entrepreneurship. Structured in two parts – policy and cases – it revea...
The study of Chinese media is a field that is growing and evolving at an exponential rate. Not only are the Chinese media a fascinating subject for analysis in their own right, but they also offer scholars and students a window to observe multi-directional flows of information, culture and communications within the contexts of globalization and regionalization. Moreover, the study of Chinese media provides an invaluable opportunity to test and refine the variety of communications theories that researchers have used to describe, analyse, compare and contrast systems of communications. The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media is a prestigious reference work providing an overview of the study of...