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LEI DIANSHENG won his place in history by committing ten years to circumnavigating the highways, deserts and plateaus of his homeland. Along the way he would stare death in the face, battling storms, starvation, wild animals, and all too often, his fellow man.Lei’s journey brought him to the graves of his heroes, to China’s starkest frontiers and to a new understanding of what it means to be alive. In his memoir, The Will to Walk, Lei recounts the greatest heights and fiercest challenges of ten years spent off the beaten path, pursuing a dream further than anyone could have thought possible.

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Shanghai was the economic center of the far east in the early 20th century, when it was known as the ‘Paris of the orient’. Decades of relative decline followed until the start of China’s reform and opening-up policy and the decision to develop Pudong. Since then, Shanghai has regained its status as the country’s leading industrial and commercial center, and emerged as a key city in the Asia-Pacific region.Today, it is focusing on a four-pronged development approach with the target of becoming not only one of the world’s top financial centers by 2020 but also a global economic, trade and shipping hub. In 2015, Shanghai’s financial sector grew by 23%, contributing 16.2% to the city’s GDP. In shipping, it has supplanted Hong Kong and Singapore to become the busiest container port in the world with a total throughput of more than 37m TEUs in 2016. Shanghai, the Pacesetter of China’s Reform and Opening Up provides a comprehensive overview of the historical, cultural and social characteristics of Shanghai, its national and global status, and its development before and after reform and opening up. It charts the transformation of Shanghai’s economy, and goes on to assess its pioneering national role in terms of social administration and cultural development. Lesser-known aspects of the city, including the ecological environment and administrative operations, are also analysed in depth. The book concludes with a look at the future development of Shanghai, the integration of the Yangtze River Delta and the vision to create a cosmopolitan city with the capability to allocate global resources.

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Following the death of Mao Zedong, Gu Mu was a major figure in the 1980s ‘Reform and Opening Up’ of China’s economy. After the founding of the PRC in 1949, he took on a number of important positions in developing China’s economy, before being persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.Following his ‘rehabilitation’ in 1973, he rapidly made up for lost time, and began laying the groundwork for the incredible economic rise the People’s Republic would undergo in the following decades.Gu Mu: Revolutionary Thinker, Organiser and Technocrat features never-before-seen archive photos dating back to the revolutionary wars of the early 20th century in addition to detailed eye-witness accounts and colourful anecdotes of the great man’s life that really bring his true character and influence on Chinese history to light.

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In a series of beautifully illustrated short stories, author and artist Feng Jicai introduces some weird and wonderful characters from the port city of Tianjin in northeast China where he was born and raised. They include a miracle doctor, a master chicken-thief, an ill-mannered mynah bird, a smooth-talking restaurateur and an educated gangster.

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An iron-willed mother, an ageing grandmother, a pair of mismatched dogs and 90 mu of less-than-ideal farmland: these are Li Juan’s companions on the steppes of the Gobi Desert.Writing out of a yurt under Xinjiang’s endless horizons, she documents her family’s quest to extract a bounty of sunflowers amid the harsh beauty and barren expanses of China’s northwest frontier. Success must be eked out in the face of life’s unnegotiable realities: sandstorms, locusts and death.While this small tribe is held at the mercy of these headwinds, they discover the cheer and dignity hidden in each other. But will their ceaseless labours deliver blooming fields of green and yellow? Or will their dreams prove as distant as they are fragile?

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Scott Kronick is President and CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations, Asia Pacific. A 28-year veteran of Ogilvy Public Relations, Scott has spent 24 of those years working in leadership positions throughout the Asia Pacific region. Scott has received numerous awards during his career and today Ogilvy Public Relations is one of the leading and most influential public relations consultancies in the Asia Pacific region. Scott is also the author of The Lighter side of China, a collection of short stories written in a light-hearted style about an American living in Greater China for 24 years. Today Scott lives with his wife Lisa and two children Jacquelin and Samuel in Beijing, China.

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The latest 2017 edition of the China Business Handbook is designed, as always, to keep readers abreast of business and economic developments in the world's 2nd-biggest economy. The China Business Handbook, packed with the latest available statistics, enables you to track China's economic performance province by province and company by company

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The people of China tell of an ancient tale, where the mantis hunts the cicada, unaware of the yellow bird behind it. In a small corner of one of its many cities, a random act of violence sets off a spinning top, entwining the lives of three people.Baorun, the compulsive bondage expert, is forever aided and abetted by Liu Sheng, a brash troublemaker, to indulge in his obsessions; and the lady Fairy Princess, ever-youthful, becomes the target of the pair’s escalating antics.As the years pass, many things begin to change, but in the dysfunctional world of a mental hospital at the end of Red Toon Street, just who is prey, and who is predator?Often insightful and occasionally unsettling, Shadow of the Hunter is a memorable tale concerned with guilt, injustice, madness and the struggle not to lose one’s soul to history. It is one of Su Tong’s most acclaimed works, now available in English for the first time.

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Along the banks of the Bachi River, a group of young people overcome many obstacles, one after another. Like a boat fighting against rapids, they bravely walk the long mountain road to school. The serenity of the flowing river, the beauty of the landscape, the ways of the world, human nature and life itself fill the hearts of Jiang, his family, his friends and his neighbours.Huang Zheng's moving portrait of a rural village in the Zhuang community of southern China documents a world that has long been swept away by modern life.

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Two brothers, Tashi and his elder brother, Dawa, tend their family's flock of sheep on the mountainside. Little Tashi tries to help his brother but his head is filled with dreams of going to school, leading to mishaps and danger. The brothers encounter many perils that threaten their family's livelihood and Tashi's dream of attending school.The beauty of the mountain and the pastures is captured in this charming tale of two young boys discovering savagery in nature and finding the strength to overcome obstacles and set-backs to preserve what is most dear to them

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ATTENTION ALL PARTY BODIES OF H PROVINCE: After consultation with relevant authorities it has been determined the local state organs have failed to undeviatingly serve the people of H province, and the entire local apparatus is riddled with corruption. Attempts to rectify the situation have failed because morally degenerate senior officials have resorted to increasingly desperate measures to cover their tracks. Effective immediately, Comrade Hou Liangping, veteran of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, is to be sent to the province to help expedite a resolution to this crisis. Every assistance will be given to Comrade Hou. Any deviation from this directive will be identified and strictly disciplined. END OF MESSAGE.

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The empire is in mortal danger. Hai Rui and his allies bought her time, but now it is spent. Endless war. Mass starvation. Bleak omens. Addled by mercury and aided by sycophants, Emperor Jiajing is squandering the last remnants of the treasury.Minutes to midnight, Hai Rui is ordered to the capital. He alone is prepared to fight the rot at its source. In the Forbidden City, such bravery cannot go unpunished. It will be down to Hai Rui’s allies – foremost the honourable Crown Prince – to initiate the endgame.This is it. No more hiding. No more half-measures. Now it is time to rescue the once-mighty Ming, or join in the plunder as it descends in flames to a hell of no return.

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Something is rotten in the heart of the capital The Ming dynasty is at its zenith. All under heaven bow towards the Forbidden City, where the Celestial Emperor and his servants grace the earth. Yet rot festers deep in the palace...Emperor Jiajing has sealed himself away, more interested in Taoist magics than the Dragon Throne. In his absence, the corruption of ambitious men grows unchecked. Among such shameless villains stride the Yan, a ruthless clan whose lustful grasp on the state ever tightens. Few dare stand against them, but heaven's mandate calls for balance, and a humble clerk named Hai Rui rises to answer. Across land and over water, forces awaken, stirred by the shadows emanating from the halls of power. No one knows if or when the peace of the Great Ming will collapse. Perhaps the cracks can be healed. Perhaps fate can be appeased. Or perhaps the old saying holds true: a realm long united, must divide...

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The urbanization rate in China soared from 29.4% in 1996 to 52.6% in 2012 following an upsurge in the construction of development zones, new urban districts and international metropolises.China’s urbanization is one of the two major events that will affect the development of human society in the 21st century, according to Joseph Stiglitz, the acclaimed American Nobel prize-winning economist, the other being the next round of the US-led new technological revolution.Urbanization, an inexorable trend of economic and social development, can act as a benchmark to gauge the economic and societal progress of a country. Since the founding of the PRC, and especially since the reform and opening-up process was launched in 1978, China has witnessed a marked upward spike in the size of its urban population. This trend has accelerated in recent decades, with small towns and cities emerging in large numbers. The authors of this textbook explore the evolution of the economy, society, ecology and culture associated with urbanization, to reveal the distinctive characteristics of urbanization in contemporary China. They examine the changes taking place in towns and cities since the start of reform and opening up, and investigate how the Chinese government has been working to establish an institutional framework to guarantee that urbanization develops in a sustainable way.

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China’s spectacular achievements in agriculture in recent decades – whereby it has succeeded in feeding some 20% of the world’s population with 9% of its arable land - have been somewhat overshadowed by the equally astonishing progress in urbanization with the latter grabbing more attention domestically and internationally.China’s much-vaunted ‘reform and opening up’ started in the countryside in the late 1970s with the change from planned, centralised, collectivised agriculture in commune and brigade enterprises to the creation of town and village enterprises (TVEs) based on the household contract responsibility system which allowed Chinese farmers for the first time since the founding of the PRC to use land to grow their own crops and develop their own agribusinesses once they had fulfilled their quotas for the collective. This was nothing short of a revolution in agriculture which transformed China’s agricultural economy from one characterized by perennial shortages to surpluses by 1998 – the turning point after 20 years of reforms. Since then, the reform and development of China’s agriculture has gone from strength to strength. As the authors of this book document in great detail:The per capita net income of Chinese farmers has trebled over the past decade from Rmb2,622 in 2003 to Rmb7,917 in 2012 - an annual increase of over Rmb540 (US$80);The growth in per capita net income of farmers has been higher than the growth of per capita disposable income of urban residents over the same period – holding out hope for reducing the urban/rural income gap – one of China’s key long-term goals;How China’s Yuan Longping - publicly acknowledged by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) back in 1982 as the world’s ‘father of hybrid rice’ - and his team developed a superior strain of hybrid rice enabling China to be self-reliant in rice consumption; Longping remains an active IRRI member to this day.

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1985 France, David Zhang's disappearance prompts his half-Chinese daughter, Anne, to delve into his history within the Chinese Labour Corps. Exploring the lives of 140,000 men who worked behind the scenes in the Great War, Anne's answers lingering childhood questions, revealing the weight of war's trauma and a past fraught with regret.

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A not-so-civil war 1947, and the final bloody chapters of the Chinese Civil War unleash a tidal wave of Red across the nation. Qi Jing and his Communist 9th Brigade are given a near-impossible mission: ford the mighty Yellow River and cut a swathe south through the Nationalist-held Dabie mountains, regardless of cost. As the disciplinarian Qi leads his soldiers through wretched conditions, he comes to rely on the enigmatic Wang Keyu to shore up flagging morale through education and propaganda. Amid desolate bluffs and ridges, she proves to be a beacon to the peasant warriors, especially Cao Shui’er, the commander’s bodyguard. As the campaign splinters and the fighting devolves into a hand-to-hand struggle against reluctant countrymen. Cao and an injured Wang find themselves stranded at the entrance to an ethereal network of caves. Can they find their way back through this labyrinth? Or will the walls close in on them?

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What good is a town without people? Wu Township is hollowing out. Our most capable sons and daughters have long since uprooted from their birthplace on the central plains to fuel China's economic miracle. The ancient trees now sit in the shade of a modern aqueduct, funnelling even our precious water to the metropolises beyond. From the marketplace where gossip is traded to the long-abandoned execution grounds, ordinary life carries on. For we who remain, feuds between neighbours compound the burdens shared by increasingly ageing shoulders. But If you know where to look, you'll find the town still clings to its customs and dreams. Let me show you around. If we're lucky, we'll run into the benevolent doctor or beauty store owner, and if we're not, the corrupt local official, perhaps even the souls of executed ancestors. Why do you want to visit? To see it before it's all gone... of course.

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In one-child China, when a mother runs from home because of her illegal pregnancy, it’s Kong Fanhua’s problem.She’s the only female village chief in Xiushui County, and her day-to-day tasks range from the mundane to the near-impossible: tracking down this runaway who left her twins behind, keeping rumours of a vengeful ghost at bay while trying to convince some rich American to invest in the local paper plant. Not to mention looking after her own farm and family. After all, the crops aren’t going to plant themselves.While the incompetent men in local government fail to get much done, Fanhua picks up the slack. But when higher-ups start investigating her hometown’s birth quotas just as she’s up for re-election, the squeeze is on. Can she keep all the plates spinning? Or will she resort to villainous tactics to preserve the peace? And why won’t her lazy husband shut up about camels?

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Qu Qingshan explores early Marxist-Leninist theories and communist party governance, highlighting China's economic growth from the early 1980s to the early 2020s. Qingshan emphasises the need for continual adaptation of theory to meet modern governance demands.

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Explore China's economic growth with Tsinghua Prof. David Daokui Li. Analysing four decades of expansion, Li forecasts China's economic trajectory and emphasises the critical lessons to be learned from its past successes and challenges.

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Thirteenth century China, and the Song Empire is crumbling due to endemic corruption and the incursion of barbarians from abroad. Ambitious men do what they must to get ahead, trampling the commoners who come in their path. Into the decaying ranks of the civil service, a young scholar called Song Ci is admitted. He soon gets the chance to prove his worth by developing an unmatched skill for interpreting crime scenes. In a series of complex murder cases that baffled his predecessors, Song is finally able to dispense justice to the relatives of those whose lives have been lost in the chaos.As the world he knows wanes, Song will be pitted against increasing dangers that will tax him to the edge of his abilities. But will his efforts be enough to save the empire?

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In The Lighter Side of China, Scott Kronick delights the reader with comic tales and lessons learnt from living and working in China and North Asia over the past two decades. In a series of 25 short stories accompanied by elegantly-sketched cartoons and crammed with amusing and informative anecdotes, Kronick light-heartedly chronicles the potential pitfalls of negotiating through interpreters, how his Chinese colleagues chose their English names, and the trials and tribulations of grappling with ‘squatter’ toilets.

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Thirteenth century China, and the Song Empire is crumbling due to endemic corruption and the incursion of barbarians from abroad. Ambitious men do what they must to get ahead, trampling the commoners who come in their path. Into the decaying ranks of the civil service, a young scholar called Song Ci is admitted. He soon gets the chance to prove his worth by developing an unmatched skill for interpreting crime scenes. In a series of complex murder cases that baffled his predecessors, Song is finally able to dispense justice to the relatives of those whose lives have been lost in the chaos.As the world he knows wanes, Song will be pitted against increasing dangers that will tax him to the edge of his abilities. But will his efforts be enough to save the empire?

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Cadres (senior party or government officials) have played a significant role throughout Chinese history and particularly over the past century. They were instrumental in helping the Communist Party of China (CPC) come to power in 1949 and in implementing the reform and opening-up process that began in 1978. This elite group in Chinese society has been pivotal in enabling the CPC to bring about social and economic development.The imperial examination system in the Sui and Tang dynasties was the world’s earliest recognized cadre selection system, and it has deeply influenced the formation of a civil service in the UK and other western countries. Since the establishment of the New China, the selection and appointment of cadres have undergone many changes designed to make the process more democratic, open and competitive.This book provides a fascinating insight into how China’s leaders are chosen. It explains the basic standards, guiding principles and procedures that are used in the process, and details the examination and evaluation systems, along with the supervisory and disciplinary measures that are deployed. It gives readers a comprehensive and systematic understanding of how China’s leaders are selected and appointed.

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All the world’s a stage, but someone has to build it. Smooth Diao’s day is going anything but. Judging by how the stagehands treat him, you wouldn’t guess that he’s the foreman who makes sure there’s food on their tables – or that this bunch of yokels work for Xi’an’s premier theatre company, where their unseen grafting makes all the dazzling performances possible. Whoever said showbusiness was glamorous? Keeping the gang out of trouble in the city's many dives and cheap noodle bars is a thankless job when all Smooth wants to do is get home in time every night to salvage his third marriage. So, when this motley crew is given a seemingly ideal chance to set the stage for a performance in the nation's capital, it’s make or break. Can they set their internal drama aside and ignore the sneers of high society long enough to prove their worth? It’s time someone noticed who really makes the show go on.

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A glimpse behind the scenes of China’s publicity modus operandi courtesy of one of its seasoned officials Embark on an intriguing journey of discovery into how high-level Chinese party and government officials engage with the media. Packed with anecdotes, no detail is too small to escape the author’s notice, from dressing to impress to addressing North Korea’s nuclear aspirations, disputed islands in the South China Sea and UK demonstrations against the Beijing Olympics. This book lifts the veil on the behind-the-scenes dynamics of this hitherto opaque world of high-level PRC press conferences. Join Fu Ying at the National People’s Congresses as she adroitly prepares for and navigates tough questions, addresses sensitive issues, and tactfully and cheerfully counters perceived biases. Travel with her to the UK where, as PRC ambassador, she works to bridge cultural divides and challenge misconceptions about China while simultaneously embracing aspects of UK press culture she can learn from, such as world-class training on how to handle the media.

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"Ning, my dear son, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but who expects to be struck down in their prime? I should have known that day on the basketball court would be the start of our trials, how the frantic dash between hospitals, from one cancer ward to the next treatment, would consume our lives.""Dad, don’t be sad. Perhaps it’s the different times we grew up in, but isn’t it inevitable? The earthy fields of your youth have turned into the concrete jungles of today. This journey has changed history, politics – even families. Why should dealing with loss be any different?" "Son, I agree with you, but no matter how things change, there is a central rule to the universe: the elders leave first; the youngsters leave later. I could have never imagined that the first death I experienced would be yours…"

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Three years after the devastating Pacific War, tensions run thick across China. Inside Peking, groups once aligned against external forces now bicker among themselves. Streets churn as Communists and Nationalists jostle for position, threatening to unravel a delicate peace. A decade of struggle has taxed the citizenry to their limits, their daily struggles exacerbated by an overstretched and corrupt government. Into this world steps Feng Meng’ao, a hotshot young fighter pilot for the Kuomintang Air Force. He reorganises his flying brigade into a relief unit for those in need, trying to stem the breakdown of order.When an important mission sends him to the old northern capital, his presence draws unwanted attention and he is swept up in accusations meant for his father. Will his drive to help those in need be enough to weather this political firestorm? Or is he due for an untimely crash?

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Greed and mismanagement have almost toppled the Ming empire. Raiders from beyond the Great Wall have set the north ablaze. Along the southern coast, Japanese pirates are severing heads. Hu Zongxian, the honourable governor of Zhejiang Province, is leading the charge of China’s heroes as they meet the invaders head-on.In the capital, it is down to a humble magistrate named Hai Rui to restore justice. Peril unknown and opponents even more deadly than the ruthless Yan clan await him. If he discovers blood on divine hands, he will find himself on a collision course with the chief eunuch, Lu Fang, whose loyalty to the Taoist Emperor is matched only by Hai’s loyalty to the common people.Criminals walk the halls in silk robes. Hidden eyes are everywhere. Will the path of righteousness prevail, or shall the corrupt go unpunished? The fate of all under heaven hangs in the balance.

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1694: Sichuan is empty, depopulated by war, famine and plague. When the emperor issues a decree asking citizens to re-settle this former land of abundance, Ning Xi takes up the call, vowing to find her father, Ning Degong, who vanished in Sichuan years ago. Beset by tigers, bandits, and a powerful old enemy, this courageous woman and her family must face countless dangers - including a new set of rivals, the influential Zhao clan - to build a new life in this wild land. Between Four Rivers is the stunning multi-generational tale of two families linked by shocking twists of fate that leave their lives and the destiny of Sichuan changed forever.

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After a long and difficult trek from the north, the Lü family is finally reunited in Kunming. Yet the war is not yet done with them, and in the furnace of a country driven to the edge, danger still prowls the very skies above them.Disoriented in unfamiliar surroundings, and abandoned by a crumbling state, they do their best to rebuild some semblance of a normal life amid the hardships of rural living and the constant Japanese bombing raids.And yet, despite the myriad challenges they face, the rugged beauty of Yunnan province's deep blue skies and the kaleidoscopic colours of the flowers blooming as far as the eye can see still make a deep impression on them that even the trials and tribulations of war cannot expunge.In the struggle to survive, the youngest of the Lü's, May and Kiddo, must take on burdens meant for someone much older, all the while trying to piece together a shattered childhood.Meanwhile, for those family members, friends and colleagues left behind in Beiping, life proves insufferable and, in some cases, fatal.

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In the heat of a wicked and oppressive summer, a tightly-knit family prepares to head south to flee from the all-consuming fires of war engulfing their northern home. It is the Summer of 1937, and a spark of war has been lit in China. The flames are spreading like wildfire across the nation, threatening to engulf everything in its path... beginning with Beijing. The city teeters on the edge, not knowing which way the balance will swing, as the shadow of conflict looms ominously over it. Everyday life carries on, as it must, but the rumours run rife. No one really knows what is going on... or what will happen next. Outside the city walls, the Lu family are no different, their lives resting in the hands of others. All they can do is wait... and hope that the balance shifts towards peace rather than all-out war. Lu Bichu, the youngest of three and mother to three children of her own, knows the ferocity of a mother's fury. There is nothing she won't do to protect everything she holds dear, everything the war threatens to take from her. To do that, Lu and her family must tread a fragile tightrope, navigating the treacherous path between a corrupt government, the merciless Japanese invaders, and even the desperation of their fellow citizens. One slip could spell tragedy for them all.

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When making coffins is the best business in town, what hope is there for tomorrow? Amidst the maelstrom of Communist China's rocky beginnings, Guojiadian, a tiny hamlet situated on salty ground in the rural northeast where nothing grows, must forge a path through the turbulence - both physical and political - threatening to return the windswept village to the dust from which it emerged. Amongst the long-suffering village inhabitants lives Guo Cunxian, a man of rare ability trapped in an era of limitations. His quest for a better future for him and his family pits him against the jealousy of his peers, the indifference of his superiors and even the seemingly cursed earth upon which he resides. In a decades-long journey filled with frustration and false starts, they eventually rise to dizzy heights built upon foundations as stable as the dust beneath their feet and the mud walls which shelter them. But will their sacrifices along this tortuous path be in vain...?

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The Roots & Soul of the Chinese People is a brave and ambitious attempt by author Mr Xu Jun to connect the dots between the 'socialist core values' drawing on Marxism espoused and promoted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) today with China's long cultural heritage - including Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Mohism, Legalism and numerous other -isms - dating all the way back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and to the pre-historic mythological times of the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor. So, in addition to a lot of information about China's history, culture and traditions, Roots & Soul touches on what Chinese consider to be some of the best of the rest of the world's great civilisations, including sections of chapters on the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians and India. Mr Xu is a Han Chinese born in 1958 who hails from Chengmai county, Hainan island (which is today a province in its own right after being spun off from Guangdong province in 1988). With an educational background in research at the central party school and currently serving as deputy director of the National People's Congress standing committee, Mr Xu's is very much a senior insider's view of how China's modern socialist path is linked to the illustrious past of China's long historical line of cultural traditions. With lots of references linking the threads running through current President Xi Jinping's modern-day speeches to China's past cultural traditions, the book presents plenty of food for thought about the relevance of the socialist path China has chosen to follow as well as the need for Chinese people not to forget where they have come from, not to worship everything modern and/or foreign and, above all, not to denigrate all of the Chinese traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.

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Spanning Europe and Asia, Playing Chess with the Devil is the true story of the remarkable people who risked their lives to protect countless civilians from the Nazis and the Japanese during the second world war. Among these heroic individuals were a German military governor, a Chinese housewife, a Danish sailor, an American missionary and two China-based German businessmen.This is an updated and extended version of Zhang Yawen’s award-winning 2002 novel A Chinese Woman at Gestapo Gunpoint, which has been adapted for the small screen and broadcast in a primetime national TV slot in China. In 2015, the book was selected by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a gift for King Philippe of Belgium. Based on extensive interviews and research, Zhang not only presents the dramatic events surrounding the resistance to fascism, but also delivers a passionate plea for mankind to learn from the mistakes of the past.

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To say that China is a nation in transition is both a statement of the obvious and also a massive understatement. In the last 30 years, this country of 1.4 billion people has experienced annual economic growth of 10% or more, which has brought it to the forefront of the world’s trading nations. It has seen great shifts of population – over half its citizens now live in cities compared with just one-fifth before the reform process began – and huge changes to its social and legal structures. It has industrialized and modernized faster than any society has ever attempted before.China now looks forward to an era of consolidating that position and of evolving all of its political, legal, social and environmental structures to carry progress forward to 2020 and beyond.In eight chapters, the authors of this book describe how the Communist Party of China (CPC) led by General Secretary Xi Jinping intends to guide the country on its continuing path to greater prosperity. The chapters explore: China’s economy and the steps needed to make it fit for the years ahead; the ongoing processes of reform and opening up; the rule of law in the specific context of Chinese society; and evolution of China’s political systems. There are chapters on the subject of the people’s livelihood, and on ecological matters; and on the shape of its industry, the adoption of new technologies, and recognition of a coming shift in the balance of manufacturing and service sectorsThe book highlights the fact that China’s progress to date has not been in any way accidental, but has been the outcome of planned process, dating back to the late 1970s and the beginning of reform and opening up. Recognising that continued double-digit growth will not be sustainable going forward, the CPC has formulated plans to shape and adjust the systems needed to govern China in the new conditions; goals such as doubling the size of the economy from 2000 to 2020 remain in place as do other themes that run throughout the text; for example, furthering socialism with Chinese characteristics, and achieving prosperity for all of the Chinese population. The book concludes that the overall forces of reform apply equally to the CPC itself, and considers how the party must always exercise strict self-governance to fit it for the task of governing China as it approaches the 100th anniversary of the founding of the party in 2021.

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Initiated in 1978, China’s reform and opening up is regarded as the greatest economic transformation in the country’s history. By changing the property ownership system and altering the structure of resource distribution, the Communist Party was able to reform its former planned economy and open up its closed economic system.In the decades that have followed, China has pushed forward the reform of its economic, political, cultural, social and ecological systems. It has also intensified its economic interaction with other nations by relaxing, and even abolishing, many kinds of restrictive policies, in the process stimulating foreign trade and attracting huge amounts of overseas investment.China is now entering a crucial phase that requires even more thorough reform, complete opening up and constant improvement of the socialist market economic system.This book analyses the experiences and achievements of this process. It focuses on how the country enhanced the role of market forces in its economy, advanced opening up and set up a variety of development zones across the country. Lively and packed with case studies, China’s Reform and Opening Up gives a fascinating insight into how a relatively poor and backward country achieved such rapid development, and how it rose from being the world's 10th largest economy in 1978 to the second largest today.

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As China’s economy, global influence and interactions with other countries grow, its diplomatic strategy is attracting more and more interest internationally. This book aims to answer the following questions:What kind of development path has China chosen? What does China’s development mean to the world? What ideas and theories guide China’s diplomacy? What diplomatic policies does China pursue? How will China’s rise impact neighbouring countries? Will China break away from the traditional pattern of ‘a rising power always seeking hegemony’? Will developing countries benefit from China’s development? How does China define its international role and its participation in multilateral governance? How does China conduct public diplomacy?One of the key goals of China’s foreign policy is to develop mutually beneficial trade deals. The first and largest FTA (free trade agreement) China established with other countries was the ASEAN+1 FTA concluded in January 2010, which was also ASEAN’s first FTA with a foreign country. China ASEAN trade exceeded US$400bn in 2013, US$470bn in 2018 and is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2020.While this book expounds the orthodox China view on its place in the world, its relations with other countries and its diplomatic strategy of peaceful cooperation and mutual benefit, it concedes that despite all parties’ best efforts, sometimes territorial disputes can’t be quickly or easily resolved. In such cases, China takes the pragmatic view that it’s OK for some problems to be put on hold pending future resolution, and the book explores many of the key problem areas in some detail such as the North Korean nuclear issue, the disputed China-India border and sovereignty over islands and territorial waters in the South China Sea.In terms of land and maritime border issues, the authors concede that whereas only two of 14 land borders with neighbouring countries remain unresolved (with India and Bhutan), to date China has yet to agree maritime borders with any of the eight countries with which it shares maritime borders.

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Imagine what it’s like to effectively organise and develop a political party with over 65 million (65m) members – that’s bigger than the total populations of many of the world’s most developed countries such as the UK (65m), France (64m), and Australia (24m).Then imagine that, if the Communist Party of China (CPC) was a country, its population would rank as the 21st biggest in the world. In addition to developing and organising its 65m party members, it had to embed them among a population of 1.38bn people so that the party could lead and guide the world’s biggest population to develop from economic backwardness after years of war and destruction to become the 2nd largest economy in the world within nine decades.Now, imagine what it takes to achieve that in terms of structure and organisation and you have a good grasp of the scale of the CPC’s achievement from its founding with just 50 members in 1921 until 2015 with some 65m members.The Communist Party of China: the Past, Present and Future of Party Building gives a blow-by-blow and chapter-by-chapter account of how the CPC got from where it was in 1921 shortly after the founding of the party to where it is now.

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Every year some 15 million Chinese officials are trained by teaching personnel numbering around 108,000 – a volume unmatched anywhere else in the world. There are over 4,500 official education and training institutions in China above the county level, including 3,100 party schools, 300 schools of administration, 400 cadre schools and 600 professional training centers. This book gives readers a rare insight into how China educates and trains its officials to run the most populous country and second biggest economy in the world.Throughout the 93-year history of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China’s cadre education and training can be divided into three stages, each lasting for about three decades:The first stage (1921-1949) was from the establishment of the CPC to the founding of the PRC. Cadre education at that time was mainly focused on the teaching and dissemination of Marxist philosophy among party members and cadres.The second stage (1949-1978) was from the founding of the PRC to before the start of reform and opening up when the CPC transformed from a revolutionary party into a governing party. A network of party schools emerged at central and regional levels making a solid basis for socialist nation building.The third stage (1978-2014) was from the start of the reform and opening-up policy to the present. This new era of China’s official education is characterized by a more scientific approach with the aim of fostering a Marxist governing party that is learning-oriented, service-oriented and innovation oriented.

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Artistic freedom comes at a price 1960s China, and society is commanded to rebel against tradition. Amid the political turmoil, three young artists look out from their attic salon onto the streets of the northern port city of Tianjin. Lacking the opportunity to craft anything meaningful, they take solace in debating bourgeois ideals and listening to banned Western music. Not much separates the trio – Luo Qian is capable of greatness if only he’d get out of his own way, while Luo Fu’s rote diligence is only matched by his charismatic showmanship. Binding them together is Chu Yuntian, whose privileged background lives alongside an earnest desire for deeper truths. When economic reforms turn society on its head, they are given licence to indulge their artistic passions. Deluged by the increasingly materialistic masses, they paint themselves onto separate paths as they lose track of once sacred certainties. In this warming age where everything is fluid, can the bonds of winter hold?

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1980s, China. Dizzying reforms are sweeping across its Central Plain as the nation is told that to get rich is glorious. Swept up in the hope of a better tomorrow, Li Delin, a brilliant scientist of humble background, and his fellow villager, the flower seller Liu Jinding, share an ambition to rise from their unassuming rural origins. In this new age of excess, few care for the old values. Li’s honest talent and hard graft earn him power in provincial politics, from which Liu extracts his own profitable empire. Neither are ready when they become surrounded by feigned friends selling false assurances. Exploited and betrayed by those he used to confide in, Li’s career is soon enveloped in corruption and tragedy. Attempts at a resolution simply dig him deeper into crisis. As the walls start to close in, who can he count on? He was never prepared for this fight.

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All reigns must end, All storms must pass. The crisis in Peking reaches its endgame as the Communists encircle the city. The future looks uncertain for all sides. Inflation is rampant, food is scarce. The battered Nationalist forces find themselves in a never-ending fight for resources, with corruption claiming what little is left. With Cui Zongshi dead, anything can happen. The old capital's few remaining brave souls do what they can to stem the chaos. Liang Jinglun and Fang Buting at the Central Bank resort to the last vestiges of their power to prop up a crumbling economy, while Fang Meng'ao has been tasked with securing transportation of important cargo to Tianjin. As Meng'ao and his devoted pilots take to the skies once again, they fly over the future leaders of China on the march. Plans must be made as the fighting draws to a close. Where will everyone land? And at what cost?

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China is ageing. Its shrinking households, overworked and overstretched, struggle to carry the burden of care for their elderly. Retired Beijing judge Uncle Xiao is one among millions of old-timers who face a hopeless choice: accept a lonely decline, or chase dubious ‘miracle cures’.Then into his life steps Miss Zhong, a young rural nurse with her own share of problems. The two have little in common, but as time delivers tragedies they learn that family can take many forms. Will this unlikely pair weather life’s storms together, and will Xiao find warmth in his sunset years?

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China is ageing. Its shrinking households, overworked and overstretched, struggle to carry the burden of care for their elderly. Retired Beijing judge Uncle Xiao is one among millions of old-timers who face a hopeless choice: accept a lonely decline, or chase dubious 'miracle cures'. Then into his life steps Miss Zhong, a young rural nurse with her own share of problems. The two have little in common, but as time delivers tragedies they learn that family can take many forms. Will this unlikely pair weather life's storms together, and will Xiao find warmth in his sunset years?

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