This book highlights information obtained from formal interviews and informal conversations with knowledgeable Chinese in 1985-1987. It reveals the growing participation in politics of social groups and related changes underway in the patterns of contemporary Chinese political thought and culture.

This book highlights information obtained from formal interviews and informal conversations with knowledgeable Chinese in 1985-1987. It reveals the growing participation in politics of social groups and related changes underway in the patterns of contemporary Chinese political thought and culture.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the once numerous pronouncements of a coming conflict with China have been muted as both countries face new challenges. The contributors to this insightful volume discuss some of the most critical issues in contemporary U.S.-China relations and provide historical and cultural perspectives on these issues. The importance of every major development in U.S.-China relations is discussed, from the success of Chinese economic reform and the rise of civil society to the EP-3 collision and the Taiwan Strait issue. While not all contributors have the same interpretation of events or conception of their implications, this volume provides a balanced, non-partisan account that presents readers with a brief and comprehensive summary of the issues at the forefront of the debate over the future of U.S.-China relations.

Considers the politics of central decision-making by focusing on senior policy makers and implementing bureaucracies on the one hand, and actors in economic and non-economic arenas on the other. The contributors held significant party and government positions in China up to 1989.

In this centennial year of China's 1911 Revolution, Volume 3 in the Salt and Light series includes the life stories of influential Chinese who played a political or military role in the new Republic that emerged. Recovering this precious legacy of faith in action shows the deep roots of the revival of Christian faith in China today.

In the late 1970s when Mao's Cultural Revolution ushered in China's reform era, religion played a small role in the changes the country was undergoing. There were few symbols of religious observance, and the practice of religion seemed a forgotten art. Yet by the new millennium, China's government reported that more than 200 million religious believers worshiped in 85,000 authorized venues, and estimates by outside observers continue to rise. The numbers tell the story: Buddhists, as in the past, are most numerous, with more than 100 million adherents. Muslims number 18 million with the majority concentrated in the northwest region of Xinjiang. By 2000 China's Catholic population had swelled from 3 million in 1949 to more than 12 million, surpassing the number of Catholics in Ireland. Protestantism in China has grown at an even faster pace during the same period, multiplying from 1 million to at least 30 million followers. China now has the world's second-largest evangelical Christian population -behind only the United States. In addition, a host of religious and quasi-spiritual groups and sects has also sprouted up in virtually every corner of Chinese society. Religion's dramatic revival in post-Mao China has generated tensions between the ruling Communist Party state and China's increasingly diverse population of religious adherents. Such tensions are rooted in centuries-old governing practices and reflect the pressures of rapid modernization. The state's response has been a mixture of accommodation and repression, with the aim of preserving monopoly control over religious organization. Its inability to do so effectively has led to cycles of persecution of religious groups that resist the party's efforts. American concern over official acts of religious persecution has become a leading issue in U.S. policy toward China. The passage of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which institutionalized concern over religious freedom abroad in U.S. foreign policy, cemented this issue as an item on the agenda of U.S.-China relations. God and Caesar in China examines China's religion policy, the history and growth of Catholic and Protestant churches in China, and the implications of church-state friction for relations between the United States and China, concluding with recommendations for U.S. policy. Contributors include Jason Kindopp (George Washington University), Daniel H. Bays (Calvin College), Mickey Spiegel (Human Rights Watch), Chan Kim-kwong (Hong Kong Christian Council), Jean-Paul Wiest (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Richard Madsen (University of California, San Diego), Xu Yihua (Fudan University), Liu Peng (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), and Carol Lee Hamrin (George Mason University).

Considers the politics of central decision-making by focusing on senior policy makers and implementing bureaucracies on the one hand, and actors in economic and non-economic arenas on the other. The contributors held significant party and government positions in China up to 1989.