Current History: Issue on China and East Asia

Current History‘s September issue focuses on Asia. Though its articles are not accessible online, the publication has allowed China Beat to print short selections from a few articles. In addition to those excerpted below, the issue also includes pieces from Kenneth Lieberthal, Merle Goldman, Bruce Cumings, and others. From “Unruly Stability: Why China’s Regime Has Staying Power” by Andrew Walder: It is no longer as clear to China’s intellectuals and other educated urbanites that the nation’s political trajectory compares unfavorably to those of its former socialist brethren. In the late 1980s the socialist world appeared on the verge of a dramatic and promising democratic breakthrough, with China’s hidebound leaders hesitating to take the plunge. The history of these transitions over the past two decades has prompted a more sober realism today. Of the 30 post-communist regimes in the world, fewer than half are now reasonably stable multiparty democracies. All of these success stories are in small and ethnically uniform nations and all but one (Mongolia) are on the eastern edge of the European Union. The rest are either harsh dictatorships or deeply corrupt and illiberal regimes whose attempts to move toward democracy have largely fallen short. In some …It is no longer as clear to China’s intellectuals and other educated urbanites that the nation’s political trajectory compares unfavorably to those of its former socialist brethren. In the late 1980s the socialist world appeared on the verge of a dramatic and promising democratic breakthrough, with China’s hidebound leaders hesitating to take the plunge. The history of these transitions over the past two decades has prompted a more sober realism today