China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities
This book is the third report on China prepared jointly by staff members of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies and there is no better place to find a compact overview of recent developments in China.
This book is the third report on China prepared jointly by staff members of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There is no better place to find a compact overview of recent developments in China, through mid-2008, both with respect to economic developments and with respect to China's foreign and national security policy. The book includes chapters on the complex relations between the central government and local governments, on the evolving role of the Chinese Communist Party, and on corruption. Its focus is China, but it is attentive throughout to the implications for the wider world and especially for the United States -- as well as to the actions the United States might take to solidify a constructive relationship between these two large countries (now first and third in the world in terms of economic output and population). The book contains an interesting discussion of the growing awareness among Chinese leaders of the importance of "soft power" -- China's influence on other governments and peoples through channels other than economic or military. But notably missing is a discussion of China's policies and actions with respect to human rights and the influence they might have on others.
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China's reform policies have created economic opportunities, but they have also unleashed political tensions. Some U.S. strategists advocate a containment strategy, yet such a strategy is both undesirable and infeasible. America's fortunes in Asia depend on the evolution of a China that is secure, cohesive, reform-oriented, and open to the world. Failed reform could easily lead to a nationalistic, obstructionist China. In recent years, Washington, while trying to engage the People's Republic, has driven it into a corner over human rights. America must develop a long-term strategy to integrate China into the world community and avert serious damage to this crucial bilateral relationship. And it must begin to do so now.
Kenneth Lieberthal's encyclopedic survey of the People's Republic bets the Communist Party can keep the lid on the country's political discontent, but a billion increasingly affluent Chinese may be getting other ideas.
Can Mao or the inheritors of Mao's authority entertain the possibility of some "separateness" for any Chinese within his egalitarian One China world? The answer to this question will influence Peking's attitudes toward peaceful coexistence with Taipei, intellectual and cultural diversities at home, and possibilities for future organization of China's economic system.

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