In 2009 the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies convened a major conference to discuss the health and longevity of China’s ruling system and to consider a fundamental question: After three decades of internal strife and turmoil, followed by an era of reform, entrepreneurialism, and internationalization, is the PRC here for the dynastic long haul? Bringing together scholars and students of China from around the world, the gathering witnessed an energetic exchange of views on four interrelated themes: polities, social transformations, wealth and well-being, and culture, belief, and practice. Edited and expanded from the original conference papers, the wide-ranging essays in this bilingual volume remain true to the conference’s aim: to promote open discussion of the past, present, and future of the People’s Republic of China.

Despite the significant progress it had achieved in the past 60 years, especially in the past 30 years since Deng Xiaoping's reform initiatives in the late 1970s, China faces daunting challenges today. These challenges include, among others, a rigid political system that does not match economic vibrancy, uneven economic growth and widening income gap, a graying population, environmental degradation, potential social instability, ethnic tensions and separatist movement, poor international image, and military modernization. Based on papers originally presented at an international conference held at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC), this book provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative assessment of the PRC's political, economic, social, ethnic, energy, security, military, diplomatic and other developments and challenges today. Contributed by scholars and experts in political science, international relations, economics, public administration, history, mass communication, psychology, and diplomacy, the book focuses on the efforts needed by China to grow in a sustainable manner and to become a respected global power. With each chapter addressing a different and yet an inter-related issue of the PRC's development, this book aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding of key challenges the country faces today as it strives to become a global power.

China at 60 explores the interactions between China and the world, over the course of 60 years of Communist Party rule since 1949 and the impact of these interactions on China's domestic development. To understand China's development experience and its transformation, it is necessary to examine the trajectory of development from pre-reform to post-reform periods. While the book may concur with previous findings on the changing development of China under economic reform, more importantly, it demonstrates the areas of continuity of the PRC's existence over the entire six decades. To that end, a dual theme — change-and-continuity and global-local interactions on China's development — is adopted to assess the historical development of China's policies in various issue areas over the past 60 years. The focus is chiefly on the domestic impacts of China's increasing engagement with the world, the global implications of China's reform efforts and growing power, and the long-lasting uniqueness of this rising non-European nation.The book brings together a team of international experts to share their perspectives on global-local interactions within a range of different topics, including foreign policy, domestic politics, macroeconomic policy, the central-local relations, the People's Liberation Army, public health, energy security, finance and banking, foreign trade, and intellectual property rights, as well as changes in the state's policies towards interest groups such as ethnic minorities.

This volume presents papers by international scholars on the economic, social and political environments out of which the PRC emerged and the socio-political impact of communist power since then. The contributions present interpretations of key aspects of reform such as economic structures, foreign policy and political change, and the socio-political impact of communist power. The book challenges the accepted orthodoxy about the Cultural Revolution. Throughout, the emphasis is on change in the context of 20th century China, and as part of the Chinese Communist Party's search for paths to development: hence the title that speaks in the plural about revolutions. This review of social and political change is highly topical in view of the PRC's recent 50th anniversary.

This volume explores genocide and persecution in the People's Republic of China, including the historical and cultural background of events from the rise of the communist People's Republic of China in 1949 to the present. Issues surrounding events such as China's Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and the treatment of minority groups and political dissidents in China are richly examined. Personal narratives from people touched by the events in China, including childhood memories of growing up during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and the recent experiences of a Uighur activist.