One of the more commonly and widely held beliefs outside the People's Republic of China about the changes wrought by the reform era is that there has been no political change The attention of the outside world focuses inevitably on Beijing and national level politics. Nonetheless, it may actually be at the more local levels that changes in politics and the state are most obviously made manifest The contributions to this volume clearly and convincingly demonstrate that the state and politics in China have changed considerably since the beginning of the 1980s. An international line up of experts explore the meanings of local initiatives through case studies, assessing their contribution to improving governance, questioning how they can be sustained, and revealing the political nature of normative standards. Each contribution focuses on a different policy area including cultural strategies, housing, land politics, corruption, peasants' burden and cadre reforms, women and gender, and international relations. The Chinese State in Transition is an important read for students and scholars of Chinese politics, social and public policy, and governance.

This book scrutinizes the role of Hong Kong in the expansive, and contested, vision of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In two main sections, it first discusses the defining features of the BRI and the evolving expectations of the role of Hong Kong in the BRI from the perspectives of policy makers and the professional sectors of accountancy-finance and the law. The second section contemplates the potential opportunities for Hong Kong from the perspectives of recipient countries of Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar. Utilizing an action research approach and engaging the views of a broad spectrum of actors, the authors observe the critical role of agency and innovations in a context of institutional contradictions, the impact of BRI governance structure for the deficits in international participation, gaps between grand state visions and commercial interests, and the salience of effective communication in navigating complex policy initiatives. Taking these together unpacks the complex processes shaping Hong Kong's participation and role in the BRI. This book will appeal to students and researchers interested in the BRI and Hong Kong, in the contexts of institutional contradictions, agency innovations and political dynamics as well as sustainable development.

The international aid community has advocated governance reforms as a necessary complement to economic aid to developing countries. The resultant Good Governance Agenda has been criticised for its ahistorical bias. The empirical case studies reported in this book further illustrate the limitations by showing the complex logics of governance reforms and their relations with development in the Asian context. The analysis highlights the importance of taking full notice of the Asian reform experiences in the ongoing reflection over the global institutional and development agenda. The message is not to deny the need for governance reforms, or the utility of international learning and sharing of experiences. Global development will benefit, however, from a better understanding of the linkages between governance reforms and the diverse historical conditions they are embedded, in both developing or the advanced economies. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Contemporary Asia.

One of the more commonly and widely held beliefs outside the People's Republic of China about the changes wrought by the reform era is that there has been no political change The attention of the outside world focuses inevitably on Beijing and national level politics. Nonetheless, it may actually be at the more local levels that changes in politics and the state are most obviously made manifest The contributions to this volume clearly and convincingly demonstrate that the state and politics in China have changed considerably since the beginning of the 1980s. An international line up of experts explore the meanings of local initiatives through case studies, assessing their contribution to improving governance, questioning how they can be sustained, and revealing the political nature of normative standards. Each contribution focuses on a different policy area including cultural strategies, housing, land politics, corruption, peasants' burden and cadre reforms, women and gender, and international relations. The Chinese State in Transition is an important read for students and scholars of Chinese politics, social and public policy, and governance.

This book examines questions of change and inertia in the context of the longstanding grievances over excessive taxation in rural China. How can some changes be sustained, whilst others cannot? How can a longstanding administrative practice be changed or even terminated, especially when previous attempts at change have failed? Using extensive interview data with local and central bureaucrats, Li's findings highlight the role of parallel developments and agency in the change process, as well as the prevalence of contingency and uncertainty. It also elegantly blends the narrative of the rural tax and administrative reforms with theoretical discussions to deepen our understanding of policy process and institutional change in 21st century China. Despite the authoritarian political system, the Chinese state-in-action which emerges from this book sees actions stemming from both the central and local levels, mediated by strategic design as well as contingency. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, political science and policy and development studies.

This book explores the idea of responsible government in East Asia, arguing that many recent governance crises have resulted from responsibility failures on a huge scale. It distinguishes between accountability, which it argues has been overemphasised recently, and responsibility, which it argues goes beyond accountability, true responsible government involving the actor in feeling liable for and taking responsibility for his or her actions. It shows how historically the concept of responsibility is more embedded in political discussions in Asia, whereas the concepts of democracy and accountability are more embedded in the intellectual traditions of Europe, but that the challenges of revolution and post-revolution, decolonization and post-colonization and neo-liberal globalization have complicated matters. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from East Asia, and relating the concepts discussed to political theory, ethics and social psychology, the book shows how actors in government and society interact to deliberate, produce or distract from the practice and perception of "responsible government", and suggests how the concept of "responsible government", better defined, might be encouraged to produce better governance.

The international aid community has advocated governance reforms as a necessary complement to economic aid to developing countries. The resultant Good Governance Agenda has been criticised for its ahistorical bias. The empirical case studies reported in this book further illustrate the limitations by showing the complex logics of governance reforms and their relations with development in the Asian context. The analysis highlights the importance of taking full notice of the Asian reform experiences in the ongoing reflection over the global institutional and development agenda. The message is not to deny the need for governance reforms, or the utility of international learning and sharing of experiences. Global development will benefit, however, from a better understanding of the linkages between governance reforms and the diverse historical conditions they are embedded, in both developing or the advanced economies. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Contemporary Asia.

This book explores the idea of responsible government in East Asia, arguing that many recent governance crises have resulted from responsibility failures on a huge scale. It distinguishes between accountability, which it argues has been overemphasised recently, and responsibility, which it argues goes beyond accountability, true responsible government involving the actor in feeling liable for and taking responsibility for his or her actions. It shows how historically the concept of responsibility is more embedded in political discussions in Asia, whereas the concepts of democracy and accountability are more embedded in the intellectual traditions of Europe, but that the challenges of revolution and post-revolution, decolonization and post-colonization and neo-liberal globalization have complicated matters. Drawing on a wide range of case studies from East Asia, and relating the concepts discussed to political theory, ethics and social psychology, the book shows how actors in government and society interact to deliberate, produce or distract from the practice and perception of "responsible government", and suggests how the concept of "responsible government", better defined, might be encouraged to produce better governance.

It is impossible to reflect on 2020 without discussing Covid-19. The term, literally meaning corona-(CO) virus (VI) disease (D) of 2019, has become synonymous with "the virus", "corona" and "the pandemic". The impact of the virus on our lives is unprecedented in modern human history, in terms of scale, depth and resilience. When compared to other epidemics that have plagued the world in recent decades, Covid-19 is often referred to as being much more "deadly" and is associated with advances in technology which scientists have described as "revolutionary". From politics to economics, spanning families and continents, Covid-19 has unsettled norms: cultural clashes are intensified, politics are even more polarized, and regional tensions and conflicts are on the rise. Global trade patterns and supply chains are increasingly being questioned and redrawn. The world is being atomized, and individuals are forced to accept the "new normal" in their routines. In an attempt to combat the virus and minimize its detrimental effects, countries have undertaken different preventive strategies and containment policies. Some have successfully curbed the spread of Covid-19, while many others remain in limbo, doing their best to respond to outbreaks in cases. To gain a better understanding of how to fight Covid-19, it is imperative to evaluate the success and failures of these approaches. Under what conditions is an approach successful? When should it be avoided? How can this information be used to avoid future pandemics? This volume offers informative comparative case studies that shed light on these key questions. Each country case is perceptively analyzed and includes a detailed timeline, allowing readers to view each response with hindsight and extrapolate the data to better understand what the future holds. Taken as a whole, this collection offers invaluable insight at this critical juncture in the Covid-19 pandemic.

This book examines questions of change and inertia in the context of the longstanding grievances over excessive taxation in rural China. How can some changes be sustained, whilst others cannot? How can a longstanding administrative practice be changed or even terminated, especially when previous attempts at change have failed? Using extensive interview data with local and central bureaucrats, Li's findings highlight the role of parallel developments and agency in the change process, as well as the prevalence of contingency and uncertainty. It also elegantly blends the narrative of the rural tax and administrative reforms with theoretical discussions to deepen our understanding of policy process and institutional change in 21st century China. Despite the authoritarian political system, the Chinese state-in-action which emerges from this book sees actions stemming from both the central and local levels, mediated by strategic design as well as contingency. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, political science and policy and development studies.

Centre and Provinces: China 1978-93 goes beyond the dominant state capacity paradigm to argue for an interactive model to explain the political relations between the central and provincial governments in contemporary China. The uni-dimensional, centrist perspective of the state capacity paradigm has failed to adequately explain the coexistence of central and provincial power, and to anticipate circumstances of change. In this book a hybrid rational-choice cum institutional approach highlights the mutual power of both the Centre and the provinces. each party, the Centre or the provinces, imposes structural constraints upon the other. Power is not a zero-sum game. The cases of Shanghai and Guangdong, important resourceful provinces under very different central policy contexts, contrast possible interactions between central policy and provincial choice. Conflicts amidst a context of mutual dependence necessitate compromise on both sides, and qualitative changes to centreprovince relations as a result may well have long-term implications for wider political processes.