The People's Republic of China at 60: An International Assessment

William C. Kirby (ed.), The People's Republic of China 60: An International Assessment, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2011 , 41 8 pp + xiiThis volume is the outgrowth of a conference held the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies of Harvard University with generous support from the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund. In fact, this conference took place a little ahead of 1 October 2009 when the People's Republic of China (PRC) commemorated its 60th anniversary since its establishment on 1 October 1 949. The book seeks to assess where the PRC has been, where it is now, and where it may be going. The two big questions lurking behind many of its chapters are: (1 ) Is the PRC, after its first three, and arguably its first four, decades of internal strife and turmoil, finally at ease? (2) Is it here for the dynastic long haul? While the editor has neatly divided the PRC's 60 years into two 30-year segments, his argument focuses on the condition and longevity of the Chinese ruling system.Although this volume is divided into five sections with 26 chapters, it still really needs coverage on some pressing issues. First of all, it generally explains the speeches, reports and orders of Mao Zedong (transcribed as Mao Tse-tung), the iconic leader who defined modern China. But it does not provide a frequently overlooked analysis on the failure of his socialism and particularly his role as pro-Marxist leader of a communist revolution in a war-torn and largely rural country to the Great Leap Famine of 1 958-1 962 beyond his Cultural Revolution that is viewed as one of the deadliest man-made mass killings in human history. However, though it regards Deng Xiaoping's post-Mao (since Mao's death in 1 976) market-oriented economic reforms as a new life into the country's dwindling polity, the Tiananmen uprising of 1 989 raised a serious doubt about the durability of the regime. Thus, it would have been fine if the editor added a separate chapter with more sophisticated observations about the legacy of this nation's great change-maker under his successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao who have managed the fastest sustained economic expansion of the PRC during 1 990s and 2000s. Also, when nothing is said about the widespread corruption within the Chinese Communist Party, the key questions remain unanswered in this book include: How has China succeeded economic market reform without changing its communist rule? Could China continue its growth without political reform? Will such an authoritarian state ultimately democratize?It is interesting that a chapter unfolds the historical context of Chinese entrepreneurships and impressive success of their business ventures while sketching a masterly balance of the government-business relationship in this country. Nonetheless, the volume does not properly investigate why China's explosive economic growth since 1 988 has not resulted in an equal increase of income among all Chinese people. Admitting that another important chapter considers both past and current state of Chinese public healthcare system, it has a shortcoming of any insight into China's industrial pollution that threatens the health of the country's citizens and also the natural resources on which their economy depends. An in-depth study on the state responses to unemployment and inequality is also absent, when poverty is still a major issue on the agenda for rural China. In addition, this volume has fully overlooked the evolving impact of civil society in providing social welfare services in the PRC. It seems needful that the book examines the role of Chinese revolutionaries and intellectuals in the turbulent process of PRC's modernization. But it sounds superfluous, as the book has included a long chapter on such less important topic as politics of national celebrations (state parades, sports festivals, etc.).The book traces the twists and turns of the PRC's foreign relations in the post-Cold War world since 1 991 . …