Restless Empire

As the twenty-first century dawns, China stands at a crossroads. The largest and most populous country on earth and currently the world’s second biggest economy, China has recently reclaimed its historic place at the center of global affairs after decades of internal chaos and disastrous foreign relations. But even as China tentatively reengages with the outside world, the contradictions of its development risks pushing it back into an era of insularity and instability—a regression that, as China’s recent history shows, would have serious implications for all other nations.

In Restless Empire, award-winning historian Odd Arne Westad traces China’s complex foreign affairs over the past 250 years, identifying the forces that will determine the country’s path in the decades to come. Since the height of the Qing Empire in the eighteenth century, China’s interactions—and confrontations—with foreign powers have caused its worldview to fluctuate wildly between extremes of dominance and subjugation, emulation and defiance. From the invasion of Burma in the 1760s to the Boxer Rebellion in the early 20th century to the 2001 standoff over a downed U.S. spy plane, many of these encounters have left Chinese with a lingering sense of humiliation and resentment, and inflamed their notions of justice, hierarchy, and Chinese centrality in world affairs. Recently, China’s rising influence on the world stage has shown what the country stands to gain from international cooperation and openness. But as Westad shows, the nation’s success will ultimately hinge on its ability to engage with potential international partners while simultaneously safeguarding its own strength and stability. —Basic Books

China Analysis: Gaming North Korea

China and North Korea have had an uneasy relationship in recent years. While the PRC has sometimes played the role of buffer state in North Korea’s dealings with the United States, South Korea, and other nations, Chinese leaders have also expressed contempt for the DPRK’s outdated socialist autocracy. North Korea has increasingly asserted its independence from the PRC, but the Chinese leadership hopes to maintain some degree of influence over Pyongyang as new leader Kim Jong-Un moves forward. This issue of China Analysis examines contradictions in Chinese policy toward North Korea and future prospects for friction in Northeast Asia.

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Politics

Protests Roiling, China’s Mainstream Media Showed an Alternate Reality

It’s already entered the annals of China’s brief but rich Internet history: On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, posts showing massive anti-Japan protests in China went viral on September 15th and 16th. Out in the real world, protestors across dozens of Chinese cities marched in the thousands. In addition to objecting to Japan’s purchase of the uninhibited island, Chinese netizen chatter has zeroed in on two issues: China’s nationwide anti-Japan protests and some protesters’ violent behavior. 

China’s Lost Decade

It’s hard to believe, but just twenty years ago China was on the verge of abandoning the market reforms that have since propelled it to its current position as a world power. Conservatives had used the 1989 Tiananmen massacre to reverse the country’s economic direction. Many felt that China needed to return to a more Soviet-style economic system, with stronger central planning and tighter regulation of people’s personal lives.

After Panjin Killing, Public Deserves to Know

There is growing public skepticism about the veracity of a government report detailing a demolition-related incident in Panjin, Liaoning province, during which a police officer killed a villager for allegedly threatening his life.

Questions revolve around why police went to the site and whether gunfire was necessary. Clouding the issue is a lack of access to information about the September 21 event and the fact that the victims’ relatives have changed their stories.

What the Foxconn Riot Says About China

Day by day, Chinese workers expect better conditions and greater guarantees that when companies go bust, the employees will not. And, yet, China permits no independent trade unions or free collective bargaining. Complaint and mediation procedures are weak. China today still has, more or less, the same Party-sponsored national trade union it has had for sixty years, even as the economy and the population have transformed. If Beijing is to avoid more riots in the months and years ahead, it needs to stop seeing this as an Apple problem and start seeing it as a China problem.

Still a Model? Revisiting the Rebel Village of Wukan

A little over a year ago, residents of the small southern Chinese fishing village of Wukan ransacked the offices of the local government in protest over a land grab by local officials. The death in police custody of one of the protest leaders a few months later catapulted the village into an unlikely rebellion, later resolved by the equally unlikely selection of new village leaders through a democratic election.

Proponents of political reform quickly heralded the village as a new model for the handling of unrest, possibly even the start of a genuine shift toward democracy. But a minor protest on Friday, the one-year anniversary of the start of the original protests, has sparked a debate about whether the results of the Wukan experiment need to be re-evaluated.

The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories

A riot involving 2,000 workers at a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan on Sunday night once has once again shined a light on conditions at factories owned by Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn. The cause of the riot appears to have been a fight between workers that somehow escalated into larger-scale unrest. While the precise dynamics that led workers in the factory to run rampant remain unclear, it’s noteworthy that news of the incident comes with Apple recently announcing that advance sales of its iPhone5 have broken all previous records.