Written by a team of leading China scholars this text interrogates the dynamics of state power and legitimation in 21st Century China. Despite the continuing economic successes and rising international prestige of China there has been increasing social protests over corruption, land seizures, environmental concerns, and homeowner movements. Such political contestation presents an opportunity to explore the changes occurring in China today -- what are the goals of political contestation, how are Chinese Communist Party leaders legitimizing their rule, who are the specific actors involved in contesting state legitimacy today and what are the implications of changing state-society relations for the future viability of the People's Republic? Key subjects covered include: the legitimacy of the Communist Party internet censorship ethnic resistance rural and urban contention nationalism youth culture labour relations Chinese Politics is an essential read for all students and scholars of contemporary China as well as those interested in the dynamics of political and social change.

About the Author

Peter Hays Gries is the Harold J. & Ruth Newman Chair and Director of the Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the University of Oklahoma, USA. His many publications include China's New Nationalism: Pride, Politics, and Diplomacy and State and Society in 21st Century China: Crisis, Contention, and Legitimation. Stanley Rosen is the director or the East Asian Studies Center and a professor of political science at the University of Southern California, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Political Change, Contestation, and Pluralization in China Today Jessica Teets, Stanley Rosen, and Peter Hays Gries 1. Dilemmas of Party Adaptation: The CCP's Strategies for Survival Bruce Dickson 2. Legitimacy Crisis in China? Vivienne Shue 3. Society in the State: China's Nondemocratic Political Pluralization Andrew Mertha 4. Protest Leadership in Rural China Lianjiang Li and Kevin O'Brien 5. Tenuous Tolerance in China's Countryside Teresa Wright 6. Social Inequality under Reform and Opening Martin Whyte 7.Chinese Youth and State-Society Relations Stanley Rosen 8.Censorship and Surveillance in Chinese Cyberspace: Beyond the Great Firewall Patricia Thornton 9. The Politics of Art Repatriation: Nationalism, State Legitimation, and Beijing's Looted Zodiac Animal Heads Richard Kraus 10. Tibetans, Uygurs, and Multinational 'China': Han-Minority Relations and State Legitimation Colin Mackerras 11. A Question of Confidence: State Legitimacy and the New Urban Poor Dorothy Solinger 12. Recasting Labor Relations through Welfare Rights Mark Frazier