Governing China in the early 21st century: Provincial perspective

China is a country of provinces and provincial leaders are important players in Chinese politics. It is important to know who will be governing China’s provinces in the early 21^st century and how they are going to govern them. This paper will attempt to address three critical issues related to governance of China’s provinces. First, it will describe the new provincial leadership of the early 21^st century. It will identify significant changes in terms of personal characteristics of this new leadership compared to that of earlier years. Second, it will analyze political structural changes at the provincial level. It will look at the relationship among several important provincial institutions and identify significant historical changes. Third, it will assess public policy orientations of the new provincial leadership.