Governing China

Abstract

This issue of EAFQ is being published in the centenary year of the Xinhai revolution, which in overthrowing the Manchu Qing dynasty was supposed to have resolved the question of how China should be governed. Of course it did not. Wang Gungwu notes the ambiguity of Sun Yat-sen’s legacy as one of the elements in China’s mixed heritage influencing the next stage of reforms. The wide range of contributions to this collection examine ‘governing China’, including ‘the government’ at its various levels, but also all those issues covered by the expanding vocabulary of governance, social management, harmonious society, civil society, and new development models. We look at social change — in particular, the frequently misunderstood role of the emerging middle-class and its interests; the role of nationalism as a factor impacting upon both domestic and foreign-policy; and reform of governance in public finance and state-owned enterprises, as well as crucial elements in the overall task of ‘governing China’. Our contributors include non-Chinese and Chinese scholars from a number of countries, and the latter include both scholars outside the system and those occupying influential positions within the system. We are particularly happy to welcome contributors from the Central Party School in Beijing, with which the ANU has formed a research partnership. The striking feature here is the agreement by all on the need for further reform, including political reform. As Wang Gungwu reminds us, many fine minds are juggling, and struggling, with a wealth of ideas and ways to achieve the goal of a state and nation that is progressive, stable and widely admired. This has not been a good year for continued progress in the direction of greater liberalisation of the political system, wider press freedoms or a truly independent judiciary, all essential components of the sort of China sought by its best minds for well over a century. At the same time, the number of individual citizens who have announced they will run for district people’s congresses in elections — despite admonitory comments from some official sources — between July and December 2012 is one encouraging reminder that China’s reality is complex. This issue of EAFQ, as well as offering authoritative diagnosis of current problems, also sets out positive signposts for the future of governing China. Show more