Chinese Politics And Foreign Policy Reform

This is an uneven collection of essays by a group of European China specialists on the linkages between domestic and foreign policy in China. One of the more interesting essays, by Peter Ferdinand, explores the phenomenon of regionalism. Ferdinand shows how many provincial leaders have exploited the opportunity for greater autonomy on the domestic level while also becoming more sophisticated operators in the world economy. The most dramatic example is Guangdong, which has become China's most successful export province. The central government in Beijing has found itself unable to monitor adequately the local government, and by 1988 the province had managed to continue to finance its own further development in defiance of a centrally ordered credit squeeze.