1st Edition

Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges New Leaders, New Challenges

By Willy Lam Copyright 2006
    376 Pages
    by Routledge

    376 Pages
    by Routledge

    Drawing on hundreds of interviews with top Chinese officials, parliamentarians, scholars, and businessmen, Willy Lam, a renowned journalist and writer on Chinese affairs, presents a first-hand, multi-dimensional account of twenty-first century China and the impact of fourth generation leaders, including President Hu Jinato and Premier Wen Jiabao. Lam goes behind the glitzy facade of nouveau-riche Beijing and Shanghai to examine how the Hu leadership has tried to extend the Communist Party's "mandate of heaven" by tackling an array of daunting problems: the weakening legitimacy of the Party's leadership; restive peasants; angry workers; political stagnation over the lack of reform; foreign relations difficulties; unreliable energy supplies; resurgent nationalism; and the increasingly dubious "Chinese model" of development. The author assesses possible contributions that the new classes of private businessmen, professionals, and intellectuals - as well as new ideas such as nationalism, globalization, and federalism - will make to economic prosperity and political liberalization. The book also includes a chapter on foreign policy, which contains an insightful account of Beijing's evolving and sometimes difficult relations with the United States, Europe, Japan, and other major countries and blocs, as well as the role of the People's Liberation Army.

    Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 The Crisis of Legitimacy; Chapter 3 The Communist Party vs. Peasants and Workers; Chapter 4 The Scourge of Governmental Stagnation; Chapter 5 The Fourth-Generation Leadership’s Ambitious Foreign-Policy Agenda; Chapter 6 The Challenge of Nationalism, and Other Ideas and Trends for the New Century; Chapter 7 Conclusion;

    Biography

    Willy Wo-Lap Lam