Book reviews

Gu Xin, Zhongguo qimeng de lishi tujing: wusifansi yu dangdai zhongguo de yishixingtai zhizheng [Historical Images of Chinese Enlightenment: May Fourth and Ideological Debates in Contemporary China] Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Hu Ping, Zhongguo minyun fansi [Retrospective on China's Democratic Movement]. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1992.

Ruan Ming, Deng Xiaoping diguo [The Deng Xiaoping Empire]. Taipei: Shibao wenhua, 1992.

Zuofeng Wang, Zhongguo chongsheng zhilu — jidu minzhu zhuyi yu zhongguo wenhua [China's Way to Restoration — Christian Democracy and Chinese Culture], California: Bay‐Hi Desktop Publishing & Graphic Designing, Co., 1992.

Chen Pingyuan, Wang Shouchang, Wang Hui, ed., Xueren [The Scholar], Vols. I and II. Suzhou: Jiangsu wenyi chuban she. 1991, 570 pp; 1992, 546 pp.     

China talks back: Anti‐Americanism or nationalism? A review of recent ‘anti‐American’ books in China

Song Qiang et al., Zhong Guo Ke Yi Shuo Bu (China Can Say No), Beijing: Zhonghua Gongshang Lianhe Chubanshe, 1996, 435 pages.

Hong Yonghong et al., Zhong Mei Jun Shi Chong Tu Qian Qian Hou Hou (US‐China Military Confrontations: Before and After), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 467 pages.

Chen Feng et al., Zhong Mei Jiao Liang Da Xie Zhen (The Grand Portrait of US‐China Confrontations), Beijing: Zhongguo Renshi Chubanshe, 1996, 668 pages.

Xi Laiwang et al., Da Yang Ji Feng: Liang Ge Shi Jie Da Guo De Bo Yi Gui Ze (The Oceanic Wing: The Games of Two World Class Nations), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 2 volumes, 1268 pages.

Zhang Shan and Xiao Weizhong, E Zhi Tai Du: Bu Cheng Nuo Fang Qi Wu Li (Stop Taiwan from Independence: No Promise on Not Using Force), Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Chubanshe, 1996, 391 pages.     

Book reviews

He Bochuan, China on the Edge: The Crisis of Ecology and Development, Berkeley: Pacific View Press, 1991.

Hu Ping, Zai lixiangyu xianshi zhijian (Between Ideal and Reality). Hong Kong: Tianyuan shuwu, 1990.

Hu Ping, Gei wo yige zhidian (Give me a Fulcrum). Taiwan: Lianjing chuban Gongshi, 1988.

Shi Bo, Waimenggu duli neimu (The inside story of Outer Mongolia's independence) (Beijing: Renmin Zhonguo chubanshe, 1993), 479pp, illustrations, maps.

Michael David Kwan, Broken portraits: Personal encounters with Chinese Students, San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1990.

Liang An Guanxi yu Zhongguo Qiantu: Xueshu Yantaohui Lunwenchi (The Taiwan‐Mainland Relationship and the Future of China: Proceedings of a Scholarly Conference), Taipei, Taiwan: Minchu Jijinhui (Democracy foundation), 1992. 390 pages.     

Book review

Bian Zheng‐xia, The Allied POWs during the Korean War. Beijing: People's Liberation Army Literature Press, 1994. Pp. 276.

Li Zhisui, The Private Life of Chairman Mao: The Memoirs of Mao's Personal Physician (translated by Tai Hung‐chao with the editorial assistance of Anne F. Thurston; forward by Andrew J. Nathan) (New York: Random House, 1994), 720 pp.     

Book reviews

Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece yu Shijian de Huigu (Reminiscences on Several Important Decisions and Events), Volume One. Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1991. 566 pp.

Xi Shu‐Guang, Shijie Xinjiegou (The New Structure of the World). Cheng Du: Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1992. 490 pp.

Pei Jianzhang, ed., Yanjiu Zhou Enlai‐Waijiao Sixiang he Shijian (Studies on Zhou Enlai: Diplomatic Thought and Practice), Beijing: Shijie Zhishi Press, 1989, 363pp.

>Ma Hong and Sun Shangqing ed., Zhongguo Jingji xinshi yu zhan wang: jingji baipi shu 1991–1992 (Economic Situation and Prospect of China: White Paper on the National Economy: 1991–1992), Beijing: Zhongguo fazhan chubanshe, 1992. 438+iv pp.

Yan Jia‐qi, Lianbang Zhongguo Gouxiang, (The Conception of a Federal China), Minbao Chuban She, Hong Kong, 1992, 153 pp.

Qi Mo (Xiu Haitao), ed., Xinquanwei zhuyi: duizhongguo weilai minyun de zhenlun (The Neo‐authoritarianism: Debates on China's Future) Taipei: Tangshan, 1991. 333+iv pp.

Li Jiaquan et al, Taiwan Zonglan (General Survey of Taiwan) Beijing: Zhongguo Youyi Publishing Co., 1991.

Zhu Yida, ed., Zhongguo renmin jiefangjun junguan shouche‐haijun fence (Officers’ Handbook of the People's Liberation Army‐Navy) Qingdao: Qingdao chubanshe, 1991 792+vi pp.     

Can She Say No to Zhang Ailing? Detail,idealism and woman in Wang Anyi's fiction

This article is a study of aesthetic idealism that characterizes the fictional works written by the contemporary Chinese writer Wang Anyi during the 1990s. I start with a comparison of Wang Anyi with Zhang Ailing, arguing that Wang's ambivalence towards Zhang's aesthetics of details is translated into a dilemma the former faces in her own writing. On the one hand, Wang Anyi appreciates Zhang's passion for life's details. Wang's own works show a high penchant for details. On the other hand, Wang is critical of Zhang's aesthetic leap from the sensuous (detail) to the nihilistic (meaning). Wang's anxiety over the ultimate value of detail can be attributed to her ideological allegiance to a May Fourth leftist tradition as well as to her awareness of the derogatory association of detail with women's writing in China. So in what way can Wang Anyi say no to Zhang Ailing? How does she try to steer clear of the danger of ‘materialistic’ trivialization that she sees lurking in details? I observe that in Wang's fiction there is neither a full embrace of idealism nor a total rejection of detailed realism à la Zhang Ailing. Instead, Wang Anyi treasures the use of details as a signifying practice to embrace her idealism.

In her 1990s' fictional works, Wang Anyi's effort to circumvent the dichotomy between detail and idea is complicated by her attempt to use details to reconstruct pictures of the past. There are several aspects to this issue. First, although nostalgic details in Wang Anyi's ‘memory stories’ help to give expression to idealistic longings of the author, they also tend to conspire with the official ban on the discourse of the traumatic socialist past. Second, while details are regarded as important in sum total, they are actually relegated by the writer to a secondary place as mere constructing materials to serve the function of bringing out the larger idea. In terms of actual narration, the highly ‘authoritative’ voice often suppresses the depth of individual subjects in her fiction. Third, Wang's ambiguity with regards to details and ‘feminine materials’ affects her characterization of women. A reading of Wang's two fictional works, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (Changhen ge) and Fu Ping (Fu Ping), demonstrates that the writer's instrumental approach tends to render female characters stranded between allegorical figures and individual subjects.     

Book reviews

Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece yu Shijian de Huigu (Reminiscences on Several Important Decisions and Events), Volume Two. Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1993. 567–1298 pp.

Li Honglin, Mingyun ‐ Li Honglin zizhuan (Fate ‐ the autobiography of Li Honglin) Taibei: Wentong tushu, 1993.

Jing Sheng, Yi Feng and Xin Ping, Haiwai Huaren Shiuejia Fajia Mijue (The Success Secrects of the Overseas Chinese Businessman) Shenyang: Liaoning People's Publishing House, 1992, 266 pages.

Li Bulou, ed. Chongji yu sikao: Xifang sichao zai Zhongguo (Impact and Reflections: Western Ideologies in China). Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1991. 290 + 16 pp.

Jia Pingwa, Feidu [Ruined Capital]. Beijing, Beijing chuban she. 1993, p.518.     

Book reviews

Chen Kuide, ed., Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian (197801989) (Cultural change in Contemporary Mainland China, 1978–1989) Taibei: Guiguan, 1991. 278 + iv pp.

Yizi Chen. China: the Ten Years Reform and Democratic Movement in 1989. Pp. ix, 209, Taipei, Taiwan, Lianjing Press, 1990.

Wu Xiaomei et al., Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu dongxifang wenhua [Modern Chinese Writers and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 272 pp. 2.12 Yuan.

Zhao Xueyong, Shen Congwen yu dongxifang wenhua [Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 226 pp. 1.75 yuan.

Zhongguo Waijiaoguan Huiylilu: Xin Zhongguo Waijiao Fengyun (Memoirs by China's Diplomats: Diplomatic Winds of New China). Edited by Waijiaobu Waijiaoshi Bianjishi (Editorial Office of Diplomatic History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Beijing: Shijie Zhishi chubanshe, 1990. 196 pp. 3.20 yuan

Zhao Wei, Zhao Ziyang zhuan (Biography of Zhao Ziyang)

Ruan Ming: Lishi Zhuanzedian Shangde Hu Yaobang (Hu Yaobang At the Turning Point of History), New Jersey: Global Cultural Publishing House, 1991     

Images,perceptions, and foreign policy: New directions in the study of Sino‐American relations

Harry Harding, A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972 (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992).

Richard Madsen, China and the American Dream: A Moral Inquiry (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995).

A. Owen Aldridge, The Dragon and the Eagle: The Presence of China in the American Enlightenment (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993).

David Shambaugh, Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972–1990 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).

Jie Chen, Ideology in US Foreign Policy: Case Studies in US China Policy (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1992).

Shu Guang Zhang, Deterrence and Strategic Culture: Chinese‐American Confrontations, 1949–1958 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).

Qiang Zhai, The Dragon, the Lion, and the Eagle: Chinese‐British‐American Relations, 1949–1958 (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1994).     

The ‘China Threat’ through the Lens of US Print Media: 1992–2006

China scholars have examined the ‘China threat’ theory from various theoretical perspectives, offered a range of explanations for the theory's emergence and forecast the potential implications for US–China relations. However, few scholars have empirically studied the ‘China threat’ theory through the lens of the US media. This is a critical oversight, because the media plays a pivotal role in shaping US public opinion and US foreign policy, and the media is a key channel for ‘China threat’ dissemination and popularization. This study seeks to redress this oversight by empirically examining ‘China threat’ coverage in the US print media over a 15-year period from 1992 to 2006. We use content-analysis methodology to systematically collect, code and analyze ‘China threat’ data from five major US newspapers and to track the frequency and content of this coverage over time.

Our analysis reveals many interesting patterns in ‘China threat’ media coverage. First, the initial emergence of ‘China threat’ arguments in the US print media corresponded with the sharp upward turn in China's economic growth rates in the early 1990s. However, since the early 1990s, ‘China threat’ coverage has not mirrored China's steady growth. Rather, the media coverage was cyclic, featuring three key peaks (1996, 2000 and 2005) followed by subsequent declining interest. Second, our analysis reveals that the focus of these stories also varied over time. Perceptions of China as a political/ideological threat dominated media coverage in the earlier years (1992–1994) but steadily declined after 1995 and totally disappeared from the US print media after 2001. Perceptions of China as a military/strategic threat replaced political/ideological concerns in 1995, and the military focus has dominated media coverage ever since. Perceptions of China as an economic/trade threat persisted steadily throughout the 15-year time period with a clear uptick in recent years. We conclude this analysis by turning to the literature on realism, agenda setting and information processing to offer possible explanations for these empirical trends.     

Book reviews

Tsou Tang, Ershi shiji Zhongguo Zhengzhi: Cong hongguan lishi yu weiguan xingdong jiaodu kan [Twentieth Century Chinese Politics: Viewed from the Perspective of Macro History and Micro Actions] (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Eric Harwit, China's Automobile Industry: Policies, Problems, and Prospects (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1995).     

A Case Study on the Settlement of Rural Women affected by Land Requisitioning in China

Urbanization is an apparent and important dimension of modernization in China. One of the main problems in China's urbanization process is the migration of farmers from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector and the concurrent conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural usage. According to current practice, the conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural use is carried out by the state through land requisitioning. In the past ten years, China's urbanization in the name of ‘economic development zones’ has resulted in extensive requisitioning of agricultural land. Millions of villagers have lost their land and left farming, seeking new employment in non-agricultural activities to sustain them. This study investigates the impact of land requisitioning on rural women's living, focusing on women's employment, training and settlement.

The study did not find evidence of discrimination against women in land requisitioning and settlement arrangements with regard to both the policy design and implementation. However, rural women are disadvantaged in attending education and training as compared with men even before land requisitioning. After their land is requisitioned, women also participate less in education and training, have a lower rate of success in finding jobs and are less likely to be self-employed than men. This has some negative impacts on their livelihoods. One policy implication of this study is: on the basis of relatively full compensation, the government should set up or entrust a special agency to promote skills training of the affected rural women, assist them with employment guidance and relevant information, and enhance their competitiveness in the job market.     

Intersectional Disadvantage: Exploring Differences Between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Parents with Intellectual Disability in the New South Wales Child Protection System

Background: Parents with intellectual disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents are overrepresented in child removal but research has not explored the intersection of Aboriginality and intellectual disability in child protection.

Methods: A case file review of 45 parents with intellectual disability (n = 14 Aboriginal and n = 31 non-Aboriginal) engaged in care proceedings in New South Wales was undertaken. Parent and child demographics and investigation triggers and outcomes were compared.

Results: Aboriginal parents were significantly younger than non-Aboriginal parents at initiation of an investigation, twice as likely to be investigated due to concerns about parenting capacity, and more likely to have children removed than non-Aboriginal parents.

Conclusion: The intersection of Aboriginality and intellectual disability appears to increase the risk of negative encounters with child protection systems. Targeted support for young Aboriginal parents and greater disability awareness and cultural sensitivity by child welfare workers are needed.     

Book reviews

Ye Qing and Lei Fang, Deng Xiaoping zai yijiuqiliu: Tiananmen shijian [Deng Xiaoping in 1976: Tiananmen Incident] (Shenyang: Chunfeng Wenyi Press, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 238.

Alain Peyrefitte, L'Empire Immobile ou Le Choc Des Mondes [The Immobile Empire or the Clash of the Worlds]. Translated by Wang Guoqing, ect. [Tingzhi de diguo‐liangge shijie de zhuangji] (Beijing: Sanliang Press, 1993), pp. 649.     

Congress and China Policy: an analysis of China bills

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of China bills introduced and passed in Congress in 1973–2005. Three important findings emerge. First, many more punitive China bills were introduced and passed in the House than in the Senate. Second, the two congressional parties agreed with each other most of the time on roll call votes related to China. Third, the major events in US–China relations largely determined the ebb and flow of China bills. Negative binomial regression analysis sheds further light on the dynamic of China policymaking on Capitol Hill. A Republican majority in the House facing off with a Democratic president brought about many more China bills. Also, there appears to be a significant gap between public opinion and congressional attitudes on China policy. Finally, the Tiananmen Incident has had a profound impact on Congress, making it much more active and punitive in China policy since then. I conclude the paper by briefly discussing the policy implications of my findings.

Only in the case of Communist China has the Congress played a major role over a long period of time to confine narrowly the president's means of maneuver.1 ^?1. Herbert N. Carroll, ‘The Congress and national security policy’, in David B. Truman, ed., The Congress and America's Failure (Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965), p. 161. View all notes     

China's brain drain problem: Causes,consequences and policy options

The brain drain has become a growing problem for China's overseas education, especially after the Tiananmen Incident of June 1989. Brain drain is a symptom of a home country's social, economic, or political problems. In China, political alienation, low income, poor living conditions, insufficient research facilities, and mismanagement of high‐level manpower are the major factors pushing intellectuals to seek development opportunities abroad.

Beijing has found it difficult to bring students back home. Restrictions often anger students abroad. Family members also discourage students from returning. Many students find it difficult to adjust to the home environment after years living abroad; some are afraid that they will be punished at home for their outspoken political opinions abroad. However, Beijing has limited control over students overseas. Also, after the 1989 June crackdown, most host governments have decided to allow Chinese students to stay.

Concerned with the brain drain problem, Beijing is adjusting its policy of study abroad. There are various policy scenarios. Each has its merits and limitations, and each will lead to different consequences. Some technical solutions are also worth considering. Although a brain drain will still occur in the future, the tendency can be reduced if appropriate measures are adopted. China's future policy on overseas education depends on the future domestic situation and foreign relations. Apparently, a continued open policy of overseas education is in the interest of the students and the country. For an effective and long‐term policy, some strategic adjustments are necessary. Beijing needs to shift its attention away from the symptoms and concentrate on to the causes of the brain drain. Also, Beijing needs to redesign its future strategy to balance the benefits and costs of overseas education, instead of attempting to eliminate the brain drain.

The brain drain is not permanent. More professionals will return home as the economic and political situation significantly improves. The experience of Taiwan and South Korea in coping with their brain drain problem is a valuable reference for Beijing.     

The maid of Chinese politics: Mao Zedong and his philosophy of struggle

The basic law of dialectics is the unity of opposites. It is natural for Marxists to stress opposites rather than unity, for it advances the doctrine of class struggle. Mao adopted Lenin's proposition that the unity of opposites is transitory, while the struggle of opposites is absolute. However, both Lenin and Mao failed to see the logical inconsistencies between this proposition and the law of the unity of opposites.

Stalin, who disagreed with the concept of “identity of contradiction,” asserted that the process of development is achieved through combat rather than harmony. Mao at first disagreed with this philosophy and advocated the unity of opposites. This accounted for the polemic of “the identity of thinking and being” in China, from 1959 to 1962.

However, in 1964, Mao launched a campaign to criticize “two combined into one “ and to propagate his own idea of “one divided into two.” The chief reason for this was that Mao needed an ideological legitimization for the schism with the USSR. This was a turning point in Mao's philosophy, for it implied the abandonment of the “unity of opposites” and a retreat towards Stalin's viewpoint. Ultimately Mao devised his “philosophy of struggle” to serve as the guiding philosophy for the Cultural Revolution.     

Book review

Wu Leng‐xi, Yi Maozhuxi: Wo Xinzi Jingli De Ruogan Zhongda Lishi Shijian Pianduan (Memoir of Chairman Mao: Some Significant Episodes I Experienced) Beijing: Xinhua Press, 1995. pp.167.

Pu Xingxu and Zhu Ganwei, ed., Dangdai zhongguo xingzheng [Contemporary Chinese Public Administration]. Shanghai: Fudan University Publishers, October 1993. pp. 418.     

Organic Agriculture in China: do property rights matter?

Since the early 1990s, the Chinese government has been promoting organic agriculture as an alternative to the ‘conventional’ agriculture practised in the Chinese countryside. The latter uses increasingly large amounts of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and, as a result, threatens the environmental sustainability of the rural economy. Though absolute numbers of organic farmers remain small, there has been a dramatic increase in their rate of growth since 1995, aided and abetted by the work of the Chinese Organic Food Development Centre (OFDC) in Nanjing established in that year. In 2002, the OFDC gained full international accreditation and recognition, allowing Chinese organic products certified by it to be sold in lucrative markets throughout the world.

At the same time, there is a vigorous debate going on inside China regarding changes in property rights over land, with many scholars advocating full privatisation. This paper, through case study research, contributes to this debate in the context of the extension of organic farming in China. It examines current land rights arrangements in nine organic villages in different parts of the Chinese countryside to investigate whether they are conducive to organic agriculture expansion or hostile to it. On the basis of this research, it argues that the extant ‘partially privatised common property regime’ associated with the Household Responsibility System, when combined with appropriate collective arrangements amongst farmers, can be a satisfactory basis for the adoption of organic agriculture, particularly amongst China's poorest farmers. As a result, it concludes that the Chinese government should encourage those collective arrangements rather than risk new forms of instability as well as environmental unsustainability through wholesale land privatisation.     

China and the World Bank: how a partnership was built

The World Bank has played an important role in China's economic transformation since the late 1970s. China used the World Bank well and the Bank was responsive to China's needs. The Bank did not recommend early or comprehensive market liberalization or privatization, as it did in some other transition economies, but supported China's pragmatic—learning-by-doing—approach to economic reform. It pushed at the margin for critical institutional and policy reforms, presenting perspective based on international experience, while providing technical assistance in numerous areas, often through Bank-supported projects. As the Chinese gained expertise, confidence and access to international capital markets, the role of the Bank in China inevitably shrank. China now uses the Bank mainly for selective technical, institutional and conceptual innovations for development. China and the World Bank both gained from their interaction.

China and the World Bank: how a partnership was built

All authors

Pieter Bottelier

*^* Pieter Bottelier is Sr. Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he teaches several courses on China's economy. He served as Chief of the World Bank's Resident Mission in China from 1993 to 1997. Helpful comments from Steven Dunaway, Jessica Einhorn, Parvez Hasan, Bert Hofman, Nicholas Hope, Ercheng Hwa, Shahid Husain, Edwin Lim, Stephen McGurk, Anthony Saich, Douglas Scott, Jinlin Yang and Jiayi Zou are gratefully acknowledged. The author is responsible for possible remaining errors.View all notes