Useful Opium? ‘Adapted religion’ and ‘harmony’ in contemporary China

Pragmatism has been a leading feature of Communist Party policies since Mao Zedong's death. The attitude to religion has been something of an exception with many restrictions to the freedom of religion stipulated in the constitution. In recent years, while stressing the ‘harmonious society’, there has been a change in the view of religion. Recognizing the ‘spiritual vacuum’ in China after Mao, the party has seen the need for a controlled spiritual development that could also support the economic development. However, in this process the party has tried to control not only religious activity but also religious content and to use it for its own purposes. This is in direct opposition to Marx and Lenin's views on ‘religion as opium’ and indicates that the party is de facto using ‘a reversed opium theory’.     

试论西方发达国家的宗教管理

本文研究发现,西方发达国家通过实行政教分离和宗教信仰自由政策;对宗教组织及其人员尤其是高层人员的重视,实现宗教与政治的结合;整合社会各种教育力量,实现宗教与教育的结合;制定法律,对宗教事务实行依法管理;采取严厉措施打击披着宗教外衣的各种不法活动等措施,有效地实现了对宗教的综合治理。这些行之有效的管理经验,对我国的宗教管理有一定的启示。     

Foreign Policy Implications of Chinese Nationalism Revisited: the strident turn

This paper revisits the debate about foreign policy implications of Chinese nationalism in the context of China's increasingly confrontational and assertive behavior in recent years. It argues that while the Chinese government made effective efforts to control popular nationalism and Chinese foreign policy was therefore not dictated by emotional nationalistic rhetoric before 2008, it has become more willing to follow the popular nationalist calls to take a confrontational position against the Western powers and to adopt tougher measures in maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors. This strident turn is partially because the government is increasingly responsive to public opinion, but more importantly because of the convergence of Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism calling for a more muscular Chinese foreign policy. Enjoying an inflated sense of empowerment supported by its new quotient of wealth and military capacities, and terrified of an uncertain future due to increasing social, economic and political tensions at home, the communist state has become more willing to play to the popular nationalist gallery in pursuing the so-called core national interests. These developments have complicated China's diplomacy, creating a heated political environment to harden China's foreign policy.     

十三届四中全会以来中国共产党处理宗教和宗教问题的历史经验

十三届四中全会以来,中国共产党处理宗教和宗教问题的历史经验主要体现在:科学判定当代中国的宗教状况和宗教工作形势,明确了宗教工作的地位和作用;全面贯彻党的宗教信仰自由政策,正常的宗教活动和宗教界的合法权益得到切实保障;依法管理宗教事务,国家对宗教事务的管理逐步走上法制化、规范化的轨道;积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应,宗教界人士和广大信教群众积极投身现代化建设;坚持独立自主自办的原则,支持宗教界开展对外友好交往,抵制境外敌对势力利用宗教进行的渗透;坚持“政治上团结合作,思想信仰上相互尊重”,党同宗教界的爱国统一战线不断巩固和发展。     

The Evolution of China's Nonproliferation Policy since the 1990s: Progress,problems, and prospects

This article offers an overview of China's evolving nonproliferation policy over the past decade. It documents the key developments during this period and identifies both the internal and external factors that have brought about significant change in Chinese policy. It argues that China's growing recognition of the threats posed by WMD proliferation, image concerns, its interest in maintaining stable Sino-US relations, and the US policy initiatives aimed at influencing Chinese behavior are largely accountable for Beijing's gradual acceptance of nonproliferation norms, pledges to adhere to selected multilateral export control guidelines, and the introduction of domestic export control regulations. It suggests that the future direction of China's nonproliferation policy to a large extent will depend on how Beijing and Washington manage their increasing differences over missile defenses and the Taiwan issue.     

我国监狱是否需要“宗教”——从监狱文化建设视角看监狱中的宗教问题

中国政府历来重视宗教问题,保护罪犯的宗教信仰权利。理论界普遍认为,宗教是监狱文化建设的重要方面,对罪犯改造具有积极的辅助作用。宗教的本质不在于宗教仪式或者宗教组织,而在于宗教精神。宗教精神包括忏悔意识和宽容精神、关爱精神以及对现实和功利主义(唯利主义)的超越精神。中国传统人文思想当中包含着丰富的宗教精神,可以启迪人生智慧、指引人生道路。因此,我国监狱需要培育罪犯的宗教精神。     

A Chinese View of China's Energy Security

This article attempts to examine how China perceives its energy security issues. A survey of its research on energy issues offers hints on how experts influence the Chinese leadership. This article briefly looks at the assessment of the energy situation in China and the policy programmes released to tackle the problems. It then analyses the policy programmes and evaluates the overall strategy. It mainly relies on published data from China to reflect a Chinese view. China in some ways would like to follow Japan's example in response to the international oil crises in the 1970s, i.e. upgrade its industrial structure, introduce energy conservation measures, develop new sources of energy supply, and engage in an ‘energy diplomacy’ to diversify and guarantee its energy supply.     

A New Chinese Discourse of India

Conventional wisdom has held that China is a success and India is a failure, that India's democracy leads to its poverty and religious intolerance, and China's economic reform without political opening was the only correct path to development and stability. The success of the Indian domestic software industry awed many Chinese and contributed to recent online discussion of India among Chinese scholars. This article sheds light on the changing views of India in China through surveying online articles posted on two major Chinese websites. The new discourse focuses on the historical, cultural, and institutional roots, particularly government policies that have led to the current situation in India. The new Chinese discourse also reflects evaluations of China's own economic policies in the past few decades.     

Re-interpreting China's Non-intervention Policy towards Myanmar: leverage,interest and intervention

China's non-intervention policy has long been criticized for prolonging the rule of many authoritarian regimes. Myanmar has become one of the classic examples. As China is expected to become a responsible great power, her behavioral patterns have aroused many concerns. This paper aims to re-interpret China's non-intervention policy. While explaining various constraints on China's capability to intervene in the Myanmar government, it shows how China is making efforts to seek a new intervention policy in dealing with countries like Myanmar. It argues that China's insistence on a non-intervention policy does not mean that China does not want to influence other countries such as Myanmar. To assess Chinese leverage and its non-intervention policy toward Myanmar as well as to supplement the current limited academic discussion on Sino–Myanmar relations, in this paper we first examine Chinese leverage in Myanmar through Burmese local politics, such as the power struggle between the central government and local rebel governments. Second, we disaggregate the Chinese interests in Myanmar into different levels (regional, geo-strategic and international) and discuss how these interests affect China's non-intervention policy. Third, we argue that China has indeed tried to intervene in Myanmar politics, but in a softer manner that contrasts with the traditional Western hard interventions, such as economic sanctions and military interference.     

China's Unbalanced Economic Growth

This paper summarizes empirical findings and results from the author's most recent research publication in Chinese: China's Unbalanced Economic Growth. It studies China's economic growth with a special emphasis on its regional disparities. It provides an analysis of China's overall economic landscape as well as an empirical study of China's unbalanced regional development. Based on its quantitative findings and results, the author predicts the emergence of ten Chinese metropolitan economies in the early twenty-first century and recommends a regional development strategy as well as implementation policies for China's future development. The major empirical findings, results and conclusions of this research are outlined in three sections: the first describes China's economic future—the emergence of ten regional metropolitan economies, the second reports the empirical findings of China's national and regional economic disparities and discusses policy implications, and the third investigates China's future economic growth and discusses its growth limitations.     

Performance Legitimacy,State Autonomy and China's Economic Miracle

Theories that explain post-Mao China's economic success tend to attribute it to one or several ‘successful’ policies or institutions of the Chinese government, or to account for the success from economic perspectives. This article argues that the success of the Chinese economy relies not just on the Chinese state's economic policy but also on its social policies. Moreover, China's economic success does not merely lie in the effectiveness of any single economic or social policy or institution, but also in the state's capacity to make a policy shift when it faces the negative unintended consequences of its earlier policies. The Chinese state is compelled to make policy shifts quickly because performance constitutes the primary base of its legitimacy, and the Chinese state is able to make policy shifts because it enjoys a high level of autonomy inherited from China's past. China's economic development follows no fixed policies and relies on no stable institutions, and there is no ‘China model’ or ‘Beijing consensus’ that can be constructed to explain its success.     

Towards an Integrated Theory of Chinese Foreign Policy: bringing leadership personality back in

This article tries to integrate the theories of personality type and Chinese foreign policy studies. It finds that theories of personality offer a new perspective on the study of Chinese foreign policy and help to better explain the differences in China's foreign policy under Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, including their international orientation, the main themes of China's foreign policy during their respective times in office, their policies towards the major powers, as well as those towards small countries. Theoretically, such integration contributes to the development of a more general theory of foreign policy analysis that would travel better beyond the borders of the American case. Empirically it highlights the necessity and benefit of an integrated approach bringing leadership personality back into the center of the analysis while taking into account other levels of analysis in the study of Chinese foreign policy.     

China Goes to Africa: a strategic move?

Entering the twenty-first century, particularly under the reign of Hu Jintao, China began to pursue an increasingly pro-active diplomacy in Africa. Most analysis on China's offensive diplomacy in Africa focuses on Beijing's thirst for energy and raw materials, and for economic profits and benefits. That is why it is often called ‘energy diplomacy’ or ‘economic diplomacy’ as if China, just like Japan in the 1980s, became another ‘economic animal’. But if one looks at the history of the PRC's foreign policy, Beijing has seldom pursued its diplomacy from purely economic considerations. Is this time any different? This article exams China's diplomacy in Africa from a strategic and political perspective such as its geo-strategic calculations, political and security ties with African countries, peacekeeping and anti-piracy efforts in the region, support for African regionalism, etc. It argues that China's diplomatic expansion in Africa, while partially driven by its need for economic growth, cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration its strategic impulse accompanying its accelerating emergence as a global power. Africa is one of China's diplomatic ‘new frontiers’ as exemplified by new Chinese leader Xi Jinping's maiden foreign trip to Africa in 2013.     

Touching stones to cross the river: Evolving telecommunication policy priorities in contemporary China

This article, drawing on fieldwork in China, charts the ascendancy of Lian Tong (China Unicom), the first competitor to the incumbent Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Commencing with an historical overview of Chinese telecommunications, it suggests that Lian Tong's formation has been contingent upon support from key constituencies within China's political elite. The company's emergence mirrors technological trends and user pressure evident globally. It embodies the drive towards market liberalisation now evident within the Peoples’ Republic. While the Chinese policy community is sensible of the need to make haste slowly toward the goal of telecommunications competition — ‘touching stones to cross the river’ in the contemporary aphorism — the success of this ‘policy experiment’ depends both on the subtleties of Chinese politics and the construction of bold new regulatory frameworks. Lian Tong's genesis is symbolic of developments in the telecommunications sector, and maybe also more generally in the Chinese economy.     

The Spiritual Well-Being of African-Americans

SUMMARY

This multi-method study explored the relationship between gender, spirituality, spiritual well-being, and several indices of religiosity including religious participation and religious motivation. Different patterns of relationships among these indices emerged for men and women. For men Spiritual Wcll-Being was related to the presence and influence of church-oriented socializing agents as well as to the belief in God's power to influence the course of events. Mean scores on measures of the importance of religion, current religious participation, religious motivation, as well as spiritual well-being were not significantly different for men and women.     

Viewing a Changing World from the PRC Embassy Window in Washington DC

This is the first chapter from the author's book (in Chinese), The Inside Stories of China-US Diplomacy after Tiananmen . With the benefit of an insider's knowledge, Chen explains the Chinese government's perceptions, motivations and policy-making during this tumultuous period. The book reveals many stories about Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders' thoughts, and policy decisions, as well as the role of the PRC embassy in Washington, in dealing with the United States and the changing world situation; much of these processes remain unknown to the outside world today. A highly renowned political commentator, Chen also makes profound analyses in the book based on his own observations and judgment. It is a path-breaking and unique book on China's foreign policy-making in that critical historical moment, written by an experienced former PRC diplomat. It will be of practical interest to anyone in the US policy community seeking to understand how personalities, perceptions, and institutions interact to produce Chinese foreign policy behavior.     

China's Role in Establishing and Building the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

In June 2001, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan established the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). While the immediate focus of the organization was to combat the so-called ‘three evils’—ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and international terrorism—the SCO's long-term viability and effectiveness in promoting regional stability and economic development depend on how member states build up common identity and cooperate on issues of mutual concern. This article looks at China's role in initiating the Shanghai-5/SCO structure within the broader framework of Beijing's foreign and security policy interests and priorities in Central Asia and seeks to examine both the prospects for and the potential obstacles to its efforts in achieving key objectives for this new regional organization: management of ethnic and religious unrest, including the fight against terrorism and separatism; maintenance of stable borders; development of energy resources; and promotion of economic prosperity. In addition, the article will also examine the extent to which Beijing has used the opportunity to exercise leadership and whether or not China can extend its influence to Central Asia using the SCO as a vehicle.     

The US Global Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era and Its Implications for China‐United States Relations: A Chinese perspective

At the early stage of the post-Cold War era, Chinese scholars put more attention into the study of US international standing than to the study of US global strategy. Around the middle of the 1990s, it became obvious for Chinese scholars that the power structure in the post-Cold War era was 'yi-chao-duo-qiang' (one super-power and several big powers). People realized that the leading position of the US would be unshakable and its comprehensive national power would be unparalleled by any single country in the foreseeable future. Since then, Chinese scholars have paid more attention to the study of US global strategy. Chinese scholars tend to agree that the Bush Administration's strategy was a transitional one, and that the US global strategy in the post-Cold War era came into being in the middle of President Clinton's first term. It is symbolized by the appearance of so-called 'engagement and enlargement strategy'. At the very beginning of his Administration (January 1993), President Clinton set forth that 'economy, security and democracy' would be the three pillars of US foreign policy. This greatly changed the traditional 'security first' strategy. The new strategy reflects some new features in the international and domestic contexts of the post-Cold War era. It has very important influences on Sino‐US relations.     

Constitutionalism and Hong Kong's future

This paper considers the transition and handover processes in Hong Kong in terms of constitutional development. It is argued that the Sino‐British Joint Declaration effectively promises Hong Kong a liberal constitutional system and that this system has been implemented in part and eroded in part. It considers the health of Hong Kong's constitutional system in the first year‐and‐a‐half of the handover. The paper then identifies the three central threats to Hong Kong's continued constitutional health: a Chinese and SAR policy vision that favors economic over political liberalism; the threat of mainland intrusion upon Hong Kong's autonomy; and any mainland failure to respect Hong Kong's viable international status to the extent guaranteed in the Joint Declaration. The history of Chinese policy calls into question its appreciation of these threats.     

The Television Play,Melodramatic Imagination and Envisioning the ‘Harmonious Society’ in Post-1989 China

The television play has been recognized by scholars as the most influential genre in the flourishing television industry in China's new media landscape; yet little critical attention has been given to inquiry of why and how it functions as a dynamic cultural agent in the Chinese people's reconfiguration of their past and imagining of their everyday life. This paper investigates the intriguing socio-historical environment from which the genre emerged and its unique modes of operation by focusing on the television play of sentiment. It demonstrates that the television play embodies the many complex aspects of social forces and relationships contested in China's reform, suggesting, all at once, commercialization in Chinese society, the popular imaginary of morality and the state's conceptualization of a ‘harmonious society’, a strategic policy aiming at maintaining social balance while bypassing some of the thorny political questions in the post-revolution era.