China
September 1997

September Article Abstracts

Title: The United States and China: Cooperation or Confrontation?
Author: David Shambaugh
The debate over United States policy toward China reached a near fever pitch this year, fueled more by opportunistic domestic politicking than by provocative actions by China. But calls to contain or confront China are misguided, David Shambaugh argues: "There is no real alternative to engaging China."

Title: China as a Great Power
Author: Samuel S. Kim
What makes a great power? Is China one? "By conventional measurements of the rise and fall of great powers. . .China is a rising great power. Yet it remains an incomplete great power in a rapidly changing world where transnational nonmilitary challenges to and soft sources of power are becoming increasingly important."

Title: Uncertainty, Insecurity, and China's Military Power
Author: Paul H. B. Godwin
"[D]espite China's undoubted ambition to become a full-fledged great military power, . . .there is no evidence that Beijing has embarked on a crash course to correct all its well-known deficiencies. . . China's defense modernization strategy remains long-term and incremental."

Title: Red Herring Hegemon: China in the South China Sea
Author: William J. Dobson and M. Taylor Fravel
"The importance China has attributed to the Spratly Islands stems from the desire to prevent humiliations like those of the past rather than from a hegemonic grand plan. . . Even if China were the hegemon some believe it to be, its military is incapable of filling a hegemon's shoes [in the South China Sea]."

Title: The Other China
Author: Maurice Meisner
The obituaries that marked Deng Xiaoping's death on February 19 were unstinting in their praise of the economic reforms the paramount leader had unleashed on China. But while getting rich has indeed been glorious for many Chinese, a much larger number, although enjoying some of the reform's benefits, live a less capital existence. Maurice Meisner surveys the socioeconomic landscape since Tiananmen.

Title: The Vices--and Virtues--of Corruption
Author: Michael Johnston
China could well see "an out-of-control corruption spiral in which partial economic reform aids corruption while political hegemony prevents comprehensive reform. The full consequences of spiraling corruption are difficult to foresee, but politically and economically the major benefits would flow to the very few, leaving a billion or more ordinary citizens on the losing end."

Title: Barring Entry? China and the WTO
Author: Peter Morici
"World Trade Organization membership for China might provide the United States with more effective methods of resolving difficult bilateral trade issues. . . [However,] admitting an ill-prepared China into the WTO would diminish the organization's credibility as an effective rule maker."

Title: The Rule of Law. . .with Chinese Socialist Characteristics
Author: James V. Feinerman
While the West, especially the United States, has been encouraging the rule of law in China as a foundation for democratic change, China's Communist leadership has found it expedient to exercise "rule by law," which is less a limit on state power and more "a mechanism for state power."

Title: Macau 1999
Author: Jonathan Porter
The scheduled reversion of the Portuguese colony of Macau to Chinese rule on December 20, 1999, has escaped the nearly endless commentary and political bickering that accompanied Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. Jonathan Porter explains that "the issues surrounding Macau's transition to Chinese control are not identical to those of Hong Kong. [Indeed,] nothing but goodwill between Portugal and China has prevailed over Macau's transition."

Title: Rumblings from the Uyghur
Author: Dru C. Gladney
The recent surge of bombings and political unrest by China's Uyghur Muslim minority has focused concern on whether Beijing, which "is still celebrating its recovery of Hong Kong on July 1, . . .can hold on to the rebellious parts of its restive west."