| Critical Issues in Contemporary China |
|
 |
CHST A301
Critical Issues in Contemporary China
| Introduction |  |
CHST A301 Critical Issues in Contemporary China is a one-year, 10-credit, higher level course. It is an elective course in the Bachelor of Social Sciences Programme in China Studies and a required course for the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in China Studies.
You may have come to this course from other courses that examine China's past and present, such as CHST A201 Introduction to Chinese Society: Traditional and Contemporary or CHST A322 Chinese Government and Politics. Perhaps you have also completed the social science foundation courses (SOSC A101/SOSC A111C/SOSC A112C). You will find that CHST A301 will complement these courses in many ways. If, however, you come to CHST A301 with little background in China studies or social sciences, you will not be at any significant disadvantage. The course team has taken great care to make the course materials as accessible as possible to all students. We hope that the transparent structure of the course, the careful design of each unit, and your strong interest in China's contemporary development will ensure that your study of CHST A301 is not only smooth but also thoroughly enjoyable.
Purpose of this Course Guide
By now, you should have completed other OUHK courses, so you have an understanding of the study skills required for distance learning and are familiar with how OUHK courses are organized. Even so, you should read this Course Guide very carefully before proceeding to the units. Much of the content in this Course Guide will be familiar to you but some of the information is specific to CHST A301 Critical Issues in Contemporary China.
This Course Guide tells you briefly what the course is about and how you can work through the material. It also suggests the amount of time you are likely to need to complete the course successfully, and gives you a general guide as to when your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and Project TMA are due. For detailed information on your TMAs, see the Assignment File and the Project Unit. For detailed information about the Project TMA, see the Project Unit. You may want to refer to this Course Guide during the course if you need to clarify points about studying with the OUHK.
Course aims
CHST A301 is designed to help you understand, analyse and debate the most significant issues that China is currently confronted with. Relevant historical and socio-economic background information will be provided, and the nature of each issue will be examined in detail. It will also explore the short-term and long-term impact of these issues, and will look at the pros and cons of possible actions that may be adopted to address them.
This course also aims to help you develop the skills of analysing topics from contending perspectives; conducting research in order to gather relevant and valid information; and formulating reasoned arguments as you approach the issues in question.
Course learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Identify the challenges China faced in its pre-1978 development and assess the need for, and likelihood of, political change in contemporary China.
- Examine the importance of ethnic issues for China's unity and socio-political stability.
- Explain and critique China's policy on regional development, and discuss the privatization process in China and its socio-economic consequences.
- Assess China's demographic policies since 1949 and their relationship with the demand for food in the country.
- Evaluate the seriousness of environmental problems in China.
- Reflect on the major contentious issues that hinder China's reunification with Taiwan.
- Analyse the extent to which the evolution of education, health and legal systems poses challenges to China's current and future socio-economic development.
| About the course | |
The course is divided into nine units. Each unit is built around a series of activities (accompanied by suggested answers) and some are supplemented with readings of academic articles. The key ideas of each unit are presented in section summaries and in a final conclusion.
Each unit first identifies the historical background of a critical issue. This issue is then examined in detail and its significance for China's contemporary development is assessed. Whenever possible, the units present contending explanatory approaches to various topics, and encourage you to formulate your own opinions on the most controversial aspects of the issues discussed. You are also expected to pay attention to current developments in Chinese politics and socio-economic development.
CHST A301 sets out to provide you with an understanding of a number of challenges facing contemporary China. These challenges relate to China's political, social and economic development. Each unit highlights problems and describes the central government's responses to these problems. The course, however, does not offer any definite answers or solutions to the problems identified. It contends that many of the critical issues have developed over a long time and suggests that there is no quick fix to them. Thus, each unit's focus is primarily on analysing the problems as well as discussing the central government's relevant policies. The readings that are included at the back of many of the units are particularly important in this context as they often present different perspectives on the issues in question. They are intended to help you understand the complexity of the issues that this course is concerned with.
Unit 1 Critical issues in 20th-century China
AlthoughCHST A301 is firmly focused on contemporary China, the course begins with a general unit, which introduces a number of critical issues that China faced throughout the 20th century, from the birth of the Republic of China in 1911 to the Deng era. More specifically, the unit looks at the problems of state building (which includes such sub-topics as nationalism and imperialism, and national unity), modernization, population and environment, and inequalities in the distribution of resources. Many of the following units will return to some of the themes introduced in Unit 1. Therefore, it is important for you to acquaint yourself with the introductory unit in order to get a general picture before venturing into the detailed analyses presented in Units 2 to 9.
Unit 2 Critical developments in Chinese politics
Unit 2 concerns the political problems the Chinese state faces in the early 21st century. It looks at the problems of ideology, attempting to find links between Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, Dengism and Jiang's recent Important Thought of the Three Representatives. The unit also examines reforms in government structure; succession issues in the party-state apparatus, and the cautious introduction of direct democracy at the lowest level of governance: villager committee elections. The unit ends with a discussion of the information revolution, which might carry important implications for the extent and methods of political control in China.
Unit 3 Ethnic minorities
The third unit in the course takes a closer look at China's diverse ethnic minorities, or nationalities. In China, the government recognizes 55 minorities. Although their population is small relative to that of the majority nationality, the Han, they inhabit about five-eighths of China's territory. For that reason their importance is out of all proportion to their population. Moreover, many of the minorities populate vast border areas, while some of them contain significant secessionist movements. The problem of ethnic minorities in China, therefore, impinges on the issue of national unity, already introduced in Unit 1. To be more specific, Unit 3 defines the concept of ethnic minority as understood by the central government, discusses China's policy towards its minority nationalities, explains how the economics of the minorities fit with China's overall economic performance and evaluates the impact of ethnic issues on China's foreign relations. This unit also considers the relationships between ethnic groups and other issues of importance for China, such as modernization, tourism and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Unit 4 Uneven economic development
Unit 4 explores the phenomenon of uneven regional development in China. The unit starts with the supposition that given its vast size (9.6 million square kilometers), it is inevitable for China to observe significant variations in geographical conditions, resource endowment, sectoral distribution of economic activities and socio-economic development. The unit, however, does not merely state the obvious. It attempts to identify the key factors that have contributed to disparities in regional development. In particular, it queries whether the post-1978 economic reforms aggravated existing regional inequalities and asks whether the policies designed by the central government to narrow regional disparities are likely to succeed or fail. The unit starts with a short historical analysis of the factors contributing to uneven development in China. Then, it looks at how and why regional disparities have widened since 1978. Finally, it discusses institutional prerequisites that are necessary if the government genuinely intends to ease tensions caused by real and perceived gaps in regional economic development.
Unit 5 Privatization in China
This unit follows up the theme of economic reforms by examining the evolution of privatization in China. It puts China's complex privatization process into an international perspective, comparing it with the experience of Britain and the post-communist states of the former Soviet bloc. The unit describes the background for privatization in China, compares and contrasts privatization in the rural and urban sectors, and identifies different forms of privatization in China. It then explores the economic, political and social implications of privatization and assesses the outcomes of the privatization process in China.
Unit 6 Demography and food production
Unit 6 turns your attention to two obvious challenges that have confronted China for many decades, if not centuries: rapidly expanding population and the capacity of Chinese agriculture to feed the ever-growing number of people. The unit starts by developing a framework for demographic analysis, and introducing major demographic concepts. This overview of demographics is followed by an historical sketch of population change in China and of population policy since 1949. The unit does not make any definite conclusion regarding the effectiveness of the one-child policy or the implications of a rising population. By providing all the necessary empirical evidence, it invites you to consider the wider implications of population issues for China's present and future. The second part of the unit considers food security in China from both the historical and contemporary perspective. It is relatively optimistic regarding the tension between population and food supplies, noting that the perennial threat of hunger, malnutrition and starvation has disappeared from China, hopefully for good.
Unit 7 China's environmental problems
Contrary to the previous unit, Unit 7 is less optimistic about the effectiveness of the central government's policies. The unit makes it clear that environmental degradation in China is serious. It reaches this conclusion by assessing the seriousness of pollution and land degradation, as well as the causes of these problems and their socio-economic and political impact. Putting China's environmental issues in an historical context, the unit then addresses the causes of current problems, particularly human and physical factors. The unit looks in detail at various forms of pollution that affect China. It also examines the seriousness of resource degradation and evaluates China's nature conservation policies. The unit concludes by looking at some of the social, political and economic impact of environmental degradation in China.
Unit 8 Cross-strait relations
This unit explores the historical background to the current division of China and examines the prospects for China's reunification. The unit's emphasis is on the current situation, and it discusses domestic developments in both China and Taiwan; economic links between the two parts of the divided China; strategic calculations by both parties; and the external influences (particularly of the United States and Japan) on cross-strait relations. The unit ends by suggesting a number of possible scenarios of future developments in cross-strait ties, ranging from reunification by force to some form of federation of both parts of China.
Unit 9 Critical socio-cultural issues
As you have probably noticed,CHST A301 is a collection of distinct analyses of various themes, rather than a homogenous discussion spread across nine units revolving around one particular aspect of China's developmental experience. Yet, the units are clearly interrelated through their common analysis of issues that pose serious challenges to China's economic and political reforms. Any straightforward conclusion to this course would be by necessity superficial and repetitious. To avoid this, the course team has decided that the final unit of the course should attempt to examine issues that are critically important to China's contemporary development but have not been adequately addressed by proceeding units. Therefore, Unit 9 critically analyses such issues as the evolution in China's education system (paying particular attention to literacy and numeracy problems); the adequacy of the health system in the reform period (including some attention devoted to AIDS and SARS); issues that relate to family, women and youth; and the law and human rights situation in China.
Course overview
The following chart gives a general overview of the course structure.
Unit 1 Critical issues in 20th-century China 2 Critical developments in Chinese politics 3 Ethnic minorities 4 Uneven economic development 5 Privatization in China 6 Demography and food production 7 China's environmental problems 8 Cross-strait relations 9 Critical socio-cultural issues Total
| Course materials | |
The course materials consist of the following:
- this Course Guide
- the nine study units described above
- selected supplementary readings (at the back of units)
- a Project Unit
- an Assignment File
- a Presentation Schedule.
Supplementary readings
In addition to the study units, the course has readings associated with particular units. These are provided as part of your course materials and will be included at the back of units.
Project Unit
The Project Unit will brief you on how to choose your own research topic, how to carry out research, and how to present your findings and results in a written form.
Assignment File
In the Assignment File, you will find three tutor-marked assignments (TMAs). For more information about the TMAs and assessment of the TMAs, see the assessment section in this Course Guide and the Assignment File.
Presentation Schedule
The Presentation Schedule is included in the course materials. It gives the dates for completing TMAs, and attending tutorials, day schools, and so on.
| Course assessment | |
The assessment for this course consists of:
- three tutor-marked-assignments (TMAs);
- one Project Assignment; and
- an end-of-course three-hour examination.
Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
The TMAs will, as a rule, be related to the main themes of particular units and each is roughly of the same level of difficulty. Each assignment should be no shorter than 1,500 words and no longer than 2,000 words. TMAs that do not adhere to the word limit will be penalized. You are advised to study the units, especially the short questions and review questions, before attempting to answer the TMAs. Only the grades of your two best TMAs and the grade for the Project Assignment count for continuous assessment, and these account for 50% of your total grade (see the table later in this section).
The Project Assignment
The Project Assignment is one of the novel features of this course. Towards the end of the course, you will be asked to write an essay on a topic of your own choice, drawing upon your own research of secondary library resources. The Project will take the form of an extended essay (counted as a double TMA) and should not be longer than 4,000 words. The Project TMA provides you with an opportunity to write on an issue that you personally find critically important to China's contemporary development. The Project will also offer you a unique opportunity to develop basic research skills, to follow up your own individual interests, and to consolidate your understanding of the course in the period just prior to the commencement of revision for the examination. You need not need make any decision about the subject of your Project TMA until the last couple of months of the course. We want you to work through Units 1 to 9 without being distracted by the Project Unit. However, you should, while working your way through the course, think about what topics, either in the course or outside it, you might want to investigate more thoroughly. One entire tutorial will be dedicated to explaining the requirements of the Project TMA.
Final examination
At the end of the course, there will be a three-hour final examination. The examination will be comprehensive and will contain five essay-type questions, from which you will be expected to choose three. You should not assume that the examination will concentrate on a few topics and neglect others. Fifty per cent of your final grade depends on your performance in the final examination.
The following table summarizes the assessment requirements for this course.
| Tutors and tutorials | |
There will be 12 tutorials and at least one day school organized for this course. You are strongly advised to attend the tutorials. The best way to get the most from tutorials is to study the course materials before attending and ask specific questions on topics, issues or readings that you do not understand. If you cannot make it to some of the tutorials, telephone tutoring is another option. In addition, you should consider self-help groups and try to use the mutual support of contact with other students in the course.
Online learning support
The Online Learning Environment (OLE) is a (non-mandatory) feature of this course. Useful course information, TMAs, a Discussion Board, and the Presentation Schedule are available through the OLE. The Discussion Board also lets you conduct online discussions about the course with your fellow students and with your tutor.
| Conclusion | |
With the progressing economic integration of Hong Kong and China, the domestic developments taking place in China exert increasingly greater influence on Hong Kong's economy and socio-political situation. It is, therefore, imperative for Hong Kong students to learn more about contemporary developments in China, particularly about the challenges posed to China's social, economic and political stability. This course not only identifies such challenges, but also offers perspectives on their possible long-term impact. We hope that through your study of this course, you will gain a greater understanding of the complexity of problems facing contemporary China and be able to consider possible solutions to some of these problems. Keep in mind that many of the issues examined by the course are continually evolving, so you should closely follow up the domestic developments in China to keep yourself up-to-date on the key aspects of Chinese political and socio-economic development. Remember too that throughout your study, you are not alone. Whenever you encounter any problems, whether related to your understanding of the course materials, TMAs or your study plan, please contact the Course Coordinator or the tutor. We are here to help you!
Welcome to the course and good luck with your study!
| A note about the developers of this course | |
CHST A301 has been developed by a team of internationally renowned academics specializing in selected areas in China studies.
Prof. Robert Ash teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. His main specialization lies in the agricultural development of China. He is an author of one monograph (Land Tenure in Pre-Revolutionary China: Kiangsu Province in the 1920s and 1930s); has edited seven books; has written 20 chapters in edited books and 11 articles in refereed journals; has made 16 contributions to yearbooks and encyclopaedias; and has written over 100 commissioned reports. Professor Ash wrote Unit 6.
Dr Gerald Chan is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has served as the editor of Political Science journal. He is currently on the advisory/editorial board of New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, AntePodium, and Global Society. His publications include Chinese Perspectives on International Relations, International Studies in China, China and International Organizations, China's International Relations in the 21st century (co-edited with Hu Weixin and Zha Daojiong), several book chapters on Chinese politics, and articles in Asian Review, The China Journal, The China Quarterly, Issues & Studies, Japanese Studies, Journal of Contemporary China, Pacific Affairs, Pacific Review, and Peace Review. Dr Chan wrote Unit 8.
Prof. Richard Edmonds teaches geography at King's College, University of London. He is a former editor of The China Quarterly. His main academic interests include geography and environmental policy. He has published in The China Quarterly, The Journal of Rural Studies, Applied Geography, The Geographical Journal, Geoforum and GeoJournal. He has contributed articles to edited books and edited or co-edited numerous books. Professor Edmonds wrote Unit 7.
Prof. Colin Mackerras lectures at the School of International Business and Asian Studies, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. His main research interest lies in Chinese history and ethnic issues. He is an author of numerous books, including The New Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China, Western Images of China, Peking Opera, China's Minority Cultures and China's Minorities. He has published extensively in refereed journals and written numerous book chapters as well as edited books. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Asian Ethnicity. Professor Mackerras wrote Units 1, 3 and 9.
Dr Ng Ka Po obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland in 2000 in the area of China's military affairs. His PhD thesis was awarded Outstanding Thesis 2001. He has co-edited one book, and contributed chapters to edited volumes. He has published extensively in China News Analysis. Dr Ng wrote Unit 2.
Dr Bennis So obtained his PhD from the Australian National University in 2001. His research focuses on urban private enterprises in China. He has contributed chapters to two edited books and published in The China Quarterly and Issues & Studies. Dr So wrote Unit 5.
Prof. Wang Shaoguang teaches political science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include political economy, comparative politics, fiscal politics, democratization and economic and political development in former socialist countries and East Asian countries. He is the author of five books, namely, Failure of Charisma: The Chinese Cultural Revolution in Wuhan, Rationality and Madness: The Masses in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Challenging the Market Myth, The Limits of Decentralisation and The Third Sector in Contemporary Perspective. He has co-authored five books and contributed to numerous edited volumes and journals. Professor Wang wrote Unit 4.
