The China Quarterly
Volume 193, Mar 2008
Special Section on Rural Protests
pp 1 - 23
Protest Leadership in Rural China
Lianjiang Li and Kevin J. O'brien
Abstract: Rural protest leaders in China play a number of roles. Among others, they lead the charge, shape collective claims, recruit activists and mobilize the public, devise and orchestrate acts of contention, and organize cross-community efforts. Protest leaders emerge in two main ways. Long-standing public figures initiate popular action on their own or in response to requests from other villagers; and ordinary villagers evolve into protest leaders when efforts to seek redress for a personal grievance fail. Rural officials sometimes attempt to co-opt or buy off protest leaders, but more often turn to repression. Although cracking down may inhibit further contention, at other times it firms up the determination of protest leaders and makes them more prone to adopt confrontational tactics, partly by enhancing their popular support, partly by increasing the costs of withdrawal.
pp 24 - 42
Local Governments and the Suppression of Popular Resistance in China
Yongshun Cai
Abstract: Local governments are responsible for dealing with many of the instances of resistance in China, and an important mode of response which they use is suppression. This article examines the rationale behind local governments' use of this mode of response. It shows that Chinese citizens who stage resistance are in a weak legal position because their actions often violate the law or government regulations. Given local governments' discretion in interpreting citizens' action, suppression becomes the option when concessions are difficult to make and citizen resistance threatens social stability, policy implementation or local officials' images. However, suppression has not stopped popular resistance, and it remains a channel through which citizens defend or pursue their legitimate rights in China.
pp 43 - 64
Justice from Above or Below? Popular Strategies for Resolving Grievances in Rural China
Ethan Michelson
Abstract: Research on rural conflict in China suggests that village leaders are sources of trouble and obstacles to justice and that aggrieved villagers have more trust in and receive more satisfactory redress from higher-level solutions than from local solutions. In contrast to this account of 搄ustice from above,?evidence presented in this article from a 2002 survey of almost 3,000 households supports an alternative theory of 搄ustice from below.?According to this latter theory, the social costs associated with appealing to higher authorities, including the legal system, for help with local disputes tend both to discourage the escalation of disputes and to produce relatively disappointing experiences and outcomes when such routes are taken. Survey respondents indicated that local solutions, often with the involvement of village leaders, were far more desirable and effective than higher-level solutions.
pp 65 - 83
China's Emerging Credit Rating Industry: The Official Foundations of Private Authority
Scott Kennedy
Abstract: Although China has had difficulty improving the performance of its banks and stock markets, it has struggled even more to develop a credit rating industry. Credit rating agencies (CRA), which provide bond ratings, are vital to financial markets in advanced capitalist countries, but China's credit rating companies are weak and have had little influence over the behaviour of those who issue or invest in bonds. Some argue that CRAs gain authority through their strong reputation in the eyes of market participants, but the experience of rating agencies in China supports evidence from elsewhere that their private authority is largely dependent on government mandate, a benefit China's CRAs have only recently begun to enjoy. Many private actors, from trade associations to charity groups, are struggling to gain public influence in China, but credit rating agencies may be the best barometer to measure the Chinese government's general stance towards private authority.
pp 84 - 101
Making Sense of Participation: The Political Culture of Pro-democracy Demonstrators in Hong Kong
Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan
Abstract: A wave of large-scale demonstrations from 2003 to 2006 has given rise to a new pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and raised important questions about the political activism of the Hong Kong public. This study aims at achieving a better understanding of the cultural underpinnings of Hong Kong people's protest participation (and non-participation). Following a tradition of constructivist analysis which sees culture as a set of shared and more or less structured ideas, symbols, feelings and common senses, this study examines how participants in the pro-democracy protests make sense of their experiences and the ongoing political and social changes in Hong Kong. It shows that the 1 July 2003 demonstration has indeed empowered many of its participants, but feelings of efficacy became more complicated and mixed as people continued to monitor changes in the political environment and interpret the actions of others. At the same time, beliefs and ideas that can be regarded as part of Hong Kong's culture of de-politicization remain prevalent among the protesters. The findings of the study allow us to understand why many Hong Kong people view protests as important means of public opinion expression and yet participate in them only occasionally.
pp 102 - 121
Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries
Yang Kuisong
Abstract: Power seized with violence has to be maintained with violence. This truth has been repeatedly proved in the course of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. The suppression of the counterrevolutionary movement in the 1950?3 period was the first campaign launched by the PRC aimed at cleansing opposition elements. This article re-examines Mao Zedong's policies and practices, and the interaction between China's central and local authorities during the campaign. It assesses whether the campaign met its goals and its implications for the future use of suppression by the regime.
pp 122 - 139
The 1967 Riots in Hong Kong: The Diplomatic and Domestic Fronts of the Colonial Governor
Ray Yep
Abstract: This article examines the dynamics behind the Hong Kong colonial government's policy during the 1967 riots, a turning point in the colony's development. Starting as an industrial dispute, it soon erupted into a major crisis that prompted the British to consider evacuation from the territory. While the Governor, David Trench, was preoccupied with the colossal task of maintaining order on the domestic front, his success was heavily dependent on his progress on the 揹iplomatic front.?His perception of British interests did not always resonate with the views of the British diplomats in China. This article argues that the prevalence of Trench's proposed policy of firm suppression of local communists over the accommodating approach, suggested by the British diplomats in Beijing, was a result of his success in persuading the officials in London of the greater utility of his proposal in preserving British interests. The limited options available to Britain and Trench's shrewdness in exploiting the sovereign's uncertainty over the future of China contributed to the Governor's success in swaying the opinions of officials in London.
Research Reports
pp 140 - 149
Governance Reform towards 揝erving Migrant Workers? The Local Implementation of Central Government Regulations
Gloria Davies and Gaby Ramia
Abstract: Using data from three provinces as part of a joint study by Monash University in Australia and China's Institute of Labour Science, an affiliate body of the national Ministry of Labour and Social Security, this article examines the extension of social rights and social security coverage to intra-national migrants in China as a public governance issue. More specifically, it analyses how central government regulations on improving the situation of migrant workers are being interpreted and implemented by local governments. In this regard, it offers a unique case study of difficulties encountered in the local implementation of policy directives issued by the central government.
pp 150 - 163
China's 2004 Economic Census and 2006 Benchmark Revision of GDP Statistics: More Questions than Answers?
Carsten A. Holz
Abstract: In 2006, China's National Bureau of Statistics undertook a benchmark revision of national income and product accounts statistics based on the findings of the 2004 economic census. The benchmark revision covers primarily the years 1993?004 with revised economy-wide and sectoral output values. The new data have three implications. First, despite all the hype only a few years ago about data falsification by local statistical authorities in China, the 2004 economic census results validate the provincial aggregate output values and invalidate the centre's national ones. Second, at the national level, economy-wide as well as sectoral nominal values were revised but real growth rates of some sectors remained unchanged. That is not plausible, and implies that at least the secondary sector real growth rates are erroneous. And finally, the benchmark revision raises questions about the quality and meaning of a large body of official statistics. Ultimately, it casts doubt on the professionalism and sincerity of China's statistical authority.
Obituaries
pp 164 - 170
Elisabeth Joan Croll, CMG, 1944?007
Robert Ash
Book Reviews
pp 172 - 173
Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis. Edited by Michael D. Swaine and Zhang Tuosheng. (with Danielle F. S. Cohen) Washington D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2006. xiv + 518 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-87003-228-8
Steven M. Goldstein
pp 173 - 175
Redefining Nationalism in Modern China: Sino-American Relations and the Emergence of Chinese Public Opinion in the 21st Century. Simon Shen. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. xiv + 293 pp. ?5.00. ISBN 978-0-230-54939-5
Yongnian Zheng
pp 175 - 176
Assessing the Threat: The Chinese Military and Taiwan's Security. Edited by Michael D. Swaine, Andrew N. D. Yang and Evan S. Medeiros. Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2007. xvi + 416 pp. $22.95. ISBN 978-0-87003-238-7
Jean-Pierre Cabestan
pp 176 - 178
Keeping Democracy at Bay: Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform. Suzanne Pepper. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto and Plymouth, UK: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008. x + 448 pp. ?6.00; €40.95. ISBN 978-0-7425-0877-4
Jean-Philippe B閖a
pp 178 - 179
Taiwan's Statesman: Lee Teng-hui and Democracy in Asia. Richard C. Kagan. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007. xii + 231 pp. $30.00. ISBN 978-1-59114-427-4
J. Bruce Jacobs
pp 180 - 181
Managing Business Disputes in Today's China: Duelling with Dragons. Edited by Michael J. Moser. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2007. xxxiii + 319 pp. $150.00; €120.00. ISBN 90-411-2462-4
Stanley Lubman
pp 181 - 183
Courts and Criminal Justice in Contemporary China. Susan Trevaskes. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto and Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007. xii + 227 pp. ?7.99; €28.33. ISBN 978-0-7391-1988-4
Jianfu Chen
pp 183 - 185
From Underground to Independent: Alternative Film Culture in Contemporary China. Edited by Paul G. Pickowicz and Yingjin Zhang. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto and Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007. xii + 268 pp. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-7425-5438
Yomi Braester
pp 185 - 186
Playing to the World's Biggest Audience: The Globalisation of Chinese Film and TV. Michael Curtin. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2007. 289 pp. ?4.95. ISBN 978-0-520-25134-2
Matthew Clifton
pp 186 - 187
Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China. David A. Palmer. London: Hurst and Company, 2007. xii + 356 pp. ?5.00. ISBN 1-85065-841-2
Benjamin Penny
pp 187 - 189
Transforming Emotions with Chinese Medicine: An Ethnographic Account from Contemporary China. Yanhua Zhang. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2007. xiv + 191 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-7914-7000-8
Bridie Andrews Minehan
pp 189 - 190
Public Health in Asia and the Pacific: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Edited by Milton J. Lewis and Kerrie L. Macpherson. London and New York: Routledge, 2008. xi + 320 pp. $75.00. ISBN 978-0-415-35962-7
Shi-Yung Liu
pp 190 - 192
Embodied Modernities: Corporeality, Representation, and Chinese Cultures. Edited by Fran Martin and Larissa Meinrich. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006. x + 290 pp. $48.00. ISBN 0-8248-2963-8
Harriet Evans
pp 193 - 194
Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution: The Politics and Poetics of Collective Memories in Reform China. Edited by Ching Kwan Lee and Guobin Yang. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, xi + 330 pp. $24.95. ISBN 978-0-8047-5853-6
Felix Wemheuer
pp 194 - 197
Empire, Nation and Beyond: Chinese History in Late Imperial and Modern Times: A Festschrift in Honor of Frederic Wakeman. Edited by Joseph W. Esherick, Wen-Hsin Yeh and Madeleine Zelin. Berkeley: University of California Institute of East Asian Studies, 2006. 323 pp. $25.00. ISBN 1-55729084-9
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik
pp 197 - 198
Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900?950. Haiyan Lee. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. x + 364 pp. $60.00. ISBN 0-8047-5417-9
C. D. Alison Bailey
pp 198 - 200
Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan. Edited by Yuko Kikuchi. University of Hawai'i Press, 2007. x + 285 pp. $60.00. ISBN 978-0-8248-3050-2
Edward Vickers
pp 200 - 201
Revolution in the Highlands: China's Jinggangshan Base Area. Stephen C. Averill. Lanham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006. xxxi + 451 pp. $76.00; ?0.00. ISBN 978-0742528789
Julia C. Strauss
pp 201 - 203
China's Republic. Diana Lary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xv + 225 pp. $75.00; ?0.00. ISBN 978-0-521-60355-2
Charles D. Musgrove
pp 203 - 204
The Boxers, China, and the World. Edited by Robert Bickers and R. G. Tiedemann. Lanham, MD and Plymouth: Rowan and Littlefield, 2007. xxviii + 231 pp. $28.95. ISBN 0-7425-5395-7
David D. Buck
pp 205 - 206
Our History is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution. Armando Choy, Gustavo Chui and Mois閟 S韔 Wong. New York: Pathfinder, 2005. 216 pp. $20.00. ISBN 978-0873489782
Yinghong Cheng
Books Received
pp 207 - 210
Books Received
Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation
pp 211 - 270
Quarterly chronicle and documentation
Contributors
pp 271 - 274
Contributors