Long-term outlook for China’s political reform

Is Governance a Prerequisite for Democracy? Insights from the Middle East

“…Thus, according to the author, China has achieved major democratic transformations relative to the country's scale, and the economic reforms have set the pattern for future political reforms. 76 In the case of the Arab countries, economic initiatives refl ect a certain level of willingness among the ruling authorities to move in the direction of political reform, as they promote heightened participation in the private sector and a more equitable dis-to serve its shareholders effi ciently, maximize their wealth and treat them equally, a nation faces the need to adopt democratic practices that ensure that the will of their citizens is being served, their resources effi ciently employed, their economic wealth maximized and fairly distributed, and their participation encouraged. As Santiso asserts, the challenge of countries would then be to bridge the economic and political gap by integrating them into a single strategy.…”

30 years’ reform of China’s mass media

“…The first question, brought by China's Reform and Opening policy (Zhang 2006;Burgio 2007), which Chinese mass media should answer is: what exactly is the function of the news media?…”

An equilibrium path for institutional change in China

“…Agriculture was one of the first sectors (in December 1978) for which substantial reforms were implemented (Lin, 2002). This focused on abolition of the commune system as part of Deng's successful program of rural reform, which freed millions of Chinese peasants from the formerly rigid system of political, economic, and administrative control that had impoverished them for decades (Zhang, 2006). Farming households, which accounted for 82% of the population at the time, were given rights to the formerly collectively owned land under long-term leases, along with the right to sell their surplus produce on the open market (Ding and Knight, 2009).…”

“…Since the late 1970s, China has undergone a fundamental transformation from a centrally planned economy based on public ownership of all capital to a market-oriented, increasingly private-sector economy (Lin, 2002). This has led to China's ''economic miracle,'' in which economic growth rates averaging close to 10% per year have been maintained despite serious obstacles such as foreign sanctions after the 1989 Tiananmen affair, the death of Deng Xiaoping in 1997, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak (Whyte, 2009;Zhang, 2006). China has even avoided the most serious impacts of the Western Enancial crisis that began in 2008.…”

“…China's political and economic coevolution will, if it can reduce the human costs compared to previous institutional changes, represent a new era in which the balance between these two institutions creates a new and innovative model for other developing nations. Table 1 summarizes China's institutional reforms since 1978, when the Chinese National People's Congress began an ambitious series of institutional reforms (Á rva and Schlett, 2013;Zhang et al, 2008;Lin, 2002;Whyte, 2009;Zhang, 2006Zhang, , 2012aZhao, 2006). In 1978, the central government declared that socioeconomic development was the key to China's future.…”