June Teufel Dreyer

Sino‐Japanese Relations

Chinas relations with Japan over the past several decades have been cyclical, with periods of relative cordiality interspersed with episodes of contention. Since 1995, however, the Beijing leadership has perceived a hardening of attitudes on the Japanese side in ways that are inimical to long-term amicable relations with the Peoples Republic of China. This has been mirrored in Tokyo, which sees Chinese behavior as increasingly provocative. The policy directions of the two states appear more divergent as well. Periodic slight thaws in relations and numerous joint projects notwithstanding, the problems between the two defy easy solution, and may be intractable. Weak leadership in both countries may encourage extremists in each to become more assertive.

Economic Development in Tibet under the People's Republic of China

After 20 years of central government efforts that include generous state subsidies, the Tibet Autonomous Region remains Chinas poorest administrative unit. Growth rates over the past decade have exceeded the national average, while the average Tibetan is better fed and clothed than in the past. However, development has been extensive, resulting from higher subsidies, rather than intensive. Economic rates of return are low and dropping, raising fears that the TAR is becoming more dependent on external aid. There are also questions about the distribution of benefits between both Han versus Tibetans and urban versus rural dwellers; the impact of development projects on the environment; and their deleterious effects on traditional Tibetan culture.

The new officer corps: Implications for the future

In early 1975, in a speech to the cadres of the headquarters of the General Staff Department of the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), Deng Xiaoping delivered his blueprint for the military of the future. The radical restructuring of the military and its officer corps that it entailed was purportedly proposed by Mao Zedong himself. However, the fact that the speech was not made public until 1983, allegedly because it had been suppressed by the Gang of Four, makes it more likely that the architect of the reorganization, with its far-reaching implications for the PLAs officer corps, was Deng himself. Two decades later, at the close of the Deng era, it is important to examine the thrust of this document in assessing trends for the officer corps of the future.

Ethnicity and economic development in Xinjiang

Although Xinjiang, comprising one-sixth the land area of the People’s Republic of China, is rich in oil and other natural resources and produces high-quality cotton, fruit, wool, and mutton, it has failed to meet central government expectations for economic development. During the 1990s, a drop in world market prices for the autonomous area’s major exports, oil and cotton, combined with the Asian currency crisis and ethnic unrest in both Xinjiang and its major Central Asian trading partners to inhibit growth. Ambitious plans to improve the infrastructure, irrigate deserts, and restructure money-losing state enterprises are likely to produce improvements in certain sectors. However, they will also work against the central government’s desire for social control. Faced with a choice between economic growth and social control, party and government are likely to opt for the latter.

The ‘Tianxia Trope’: will China change the international system?

The tianxia trope has been advanced as an organizing principle for post-Cold War international relations encompassing the rise of the Peoples Republic of China. The tianxia system is defined as a Sino-centric hierarchical relationship among unequals, governed according to Confucian principles of benevolence. As traditionally practiced, it incorporated an important role for the observance of ritual, including the presentation of tribute to the emperor as Son of Heaven, purportedly resulting in a Pax Sinica. Its supporters believe that, if adopted in todays world, tianxia would constitute a great improvement over the anarchic Westphalian system of theoretically equal states who possess sovereignty, i.e. inviolability within their own borders. Because they answer to no superior authority, the Westphalian system is by its very nature conducive to discord and war. This article will argue that both the tianxia and Westphalian systems have serious flaws and were rarely practiced as either their proponents or detractors argue. However, even states whose domestic autonomy is compromised by internal dissent and whose weaknesses prevent their playing an influential role internationally have vested interests in maintaining adherence to the Westphalian system, if only as a bargaining position. The PRC government itself has accepted the principles inherent therein through such actions as joining the United Nations and becoming a signatory of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It zealously defends its sovereign prerogatives when useful, even as it makes efforts to educate the world on the virtues of a Confucian Great Harmony, and its supporters advocate following a somewhat nebulously defined Chinese model. In the absence of compelling incentives for major players in the current international system to adopt the tianxia system, Westphalian sovereignty appears likely to remain the organizing principle of international relations for the foreseeable future, its serious deficiencies notwithstanding. To paraphrase Winston Churchills remarks on democracy, it may be the worst form of government except for all the others.

Party-Military Relations in the PRC and Taiwan: Paradoxes of Control . By Cheng Hsiao-shih. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990. xiv, 178 pp.

The origin and evolution of the Political Commissar System (PCS) in China the functions and structure of the PCS the rationale and operational problems of the PCS the PCS in Peoples Republic of Chinas politics the PCS in Taiwan politics conclusion.

28.50 (paper).

While Chinas military modernization program has brought improvements in the countrys military preparedness, the rate of modernization has been slower than hoped for. The lack of consensus on certain crucial matters, combined with continued factionally based frictions and ongoing financial constraints, indicates that the outlook for significant near-term improvements in the Peoples Liberation Armys fighting capabilities relative to those of the United States and the Soviet Union is not encouraging. Nonetheless, even after major cuts in size, the PLA will remain the worlds largest military, and it can draw on the worlds largest pool of reservists. Hence Chinas military potential against other Asian states remains substantial, and may even increase somewhat.

Deng Xiaoping And Modernization Of the Chinese Military

Initialy, the Chinese Communist Government held high hopes for a speedy solution to “the nationalities question.” Recent events, however, show that this question is still much in evidence and has been causing considerable anxiety in Peking. Since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Red Guard exposures of “black bandits in power who are following a capitalist path” have revealed the existence of minorities problems which cast doubt on the regimes previous claims of progress. The Cultural Revolution has also revealed a split between those in the top leadership who favour concessions to the customs and traditions of the minorities and those who favour immediate and total assimilation. Since the former are generally experienced administrators while the latter are ideological zealots, this split may also be seen as yet another manifestation of the continuing “Red” versus “Expert” controversy.

China's Minority Nationalities in the Cultural Revolution

Abstract Confusion in the West regarding the exact nature of civil‐military relations in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) could lead to significant problems for decision‐makers. Unlike the United States, there is a great deal of movement between civil and military offices in the PRC. Due to this fluid situation, it is difficult to anticipate an individuals behavior simply by discovering his or her position in the bureaucracy. “Where you sit,” so far as the PRC is concerned, is not “where you stand.”

Civil—Military relations in the people's republic of China

Due to their strategic location and their occupation of some of Chinas most valuable lands, the ethnic minorities of the Chinese Peoples Republic have occupied the attention of the central government to a far greater degree than would be expected from their relatively insignificant 6 percent of the CPRs total population. The Chinese Communist party inherited an ethnic cleavage pat tern of some salience from prior governments and has been trying to deal with it through alternating policies of tolerance for ethnic particularism with policies repressive of these particularities. The tension between these two policies forms an ongoing theme in Chinas leadership struggles and can be traced to two different statements by Mao Tse-tung on the proper handling of ethnic problems. The debate be tween proponents of the two different policies can be ex pected to go on, though domestic and international con straints seem to portend a continuation of the moderate measures presently in force. The leaderships dissatisfaction with the status of nationalities relations should not be allowed to obscure the CCPs successes in dealing with its ethnic minorities.