Customer Reviews

ChinaÕs Transition

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This is an exellent and highly readable account/analysis of contemporary Chinese political life and attitudes. I quarrel with the Chapter order. I would go to Chapter 10 first, where Professor Nathan explains his positions on US-China relations and the reasons behind those positions. He is both principled and commonsensible on such concerns as "human rights." Read Chapters 1 and 3 in sequence and weigh your own reactions. Academic jargon does surface in certain parts of this text but it is worth plowing through. The presence of Chinese contributors gives a valuable cultural nuance to Nathan's own culturally-derived perspectives. Chapter 2 should be reserved until one is well through the book. Cruelty is present in any society; has it been especially prevalent in China? On our side of the world there is a parable about a mote and a beam that is always worth one more read. (This review is an edited version of an earlier review which I submitted.)

[Please delete my earlier reviews.]

This is an excellent and highly readable account/analysis of contemporary Chinese political life and attitudes. I quarrel with the Chapter order. I would go to Chapter 10 first, where Professor Nathan explains his positions on US-China relations and the reasons behind those position. He is both principled and commonsensible on such concerns as "human rights." From Chapter 16 I would next read Chaps. 10 and 11. Academic jargon does surface in Chap. 10 but it is well worth plowing ahead and seeing how the chapter ends. The presence of Chinese contributors gives a valuable cultural nuance to Nathan's own culturally-derived perspectives. I am surprised, given Prof. Nathan's sophistication, that he was surprised by the Chinese response to his introduction to the memoirs of Mao's late personal physician. Read Chaps 1 and 3 in sequence and weigh your own reactions. Chap. 2 should be reserved until one is well through the rest of the book. Cruelty is present in any society; has it been especially prevalent in China? From our side of the world, there is a parable about a mote and a beam that is always well worth another read.

Professor Nathan wrote the foreword to the squalid fiction The Private Life of Chairman Mao, published by Random House in 1994. In this new book, he maintains his hostility to China, writing that "China seems to get worse the more we learn about it." He insults his American and Chinese critics, claiming that they do not debate properly, yet his book is full of unfounded accusations, introduced by `the story is told that .. ' and `allegedly', and ending in abuse.

Nathan argues that the USA should use the ideas of constitutionalism, democracy and human rights to destroy China's state. As the war against Yugoslavia showed, moral intervention is only an opportunity away from military intervention.

Yet back-handedly, Nathan mentions achievements that make his hostility look jejune. He notes the Chinese people's legitimate nationalism, their policy of peace and non-intervention and their efforts to defend their sovereignty and national unity, recovered after a century of neocolonialism and exploitation. Economically, China was a century behind the West. Nathan concedes that China has achieved industrial self-sufficiency; its economy grows by 11% a year; it feeds a population of a billion and can still export food; it has created an educated and cultured people and provides medical care good enough to establish a life expectancy of 69 years. It uses capital produced in China to boost its productivity; it retains collective ownership of the land and rejects IMF overlordship; it has achieved massive urbanisation, relatively equitable distribution of wealth, and excellent means of communication.

The Chinese Government has united and directed this vast and most disparate nation. It has ended the violent policy swings and `shock treatments', successfully integrated Hong Kong and publicly and effectively campaigned against corruption. There is little demand for pluralism, because the Party encompasses, debates and resolves a wide range of views: Nathan's own survey showed that less than 18% of the population favoured the kind of political reform that the USA demands.