This volume presents a timely assessment of the Hu Wen Administration at the juncture of preparing a change of China s leadership in 2012 13. The assessment is important because the administration s apparent success tends to create a path-dependent orientation on the part of its successor.
Bringing together a collection of nineteen major essays, this book offers a fresh perspective of evaluating the performance and achievements of China in the Hu Wen era in terms of economic development, the establishment of a rudimentary social security system and her rising international status. The new opportunities and challenges facing China, and how will the likely successors Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang handle those opportunities and challenges, as well as new policy programmes will also be discussed in greater detail. Each essay is written by experts and scholars from different academic disciplines and backgrounds to provide readers with a unique overview of their respective areas of expertise.
This book will provide a platform for further informed deliberations among academics, students, corporate executives and professionals who are interested in China s development.
Joseph Y. S. CHENG is Chair Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Contemporary China Research Project, City University of Hong Kong. He is the founding editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Social Sciences and The Journal of Comparative Asian Development. He has published widely on the political development in China and Hong Kong, Chinese foreign policy and local government in southern China. He has recently edited volumes on Whither China s Democracy? Democratization in China since the Tiananmen Incident ; and Guangdong Challenges in Development and Crisis Management . He was chairman of the Hong Kong Observers, 1980 82; and convener of Power for Democracy, 2002 04. He has been a Justice of Peace since 1992; and was the founding president of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong during 2005 07. In 2006 08, he served as the secretary-general of the Civic Party. He is now involved in the launch of the New School of Democracy.