Chinese Growth and Democracy

Paper Summary:

The paper examines evidence of repression in China, even in face of its capitalist growth. The paper disproves the belief that capitalist development will automatically create the circumstances that are conducive to democracy. The paper discusses the ideas of Maurice Meisner who equates the People's Republic of China's actions with Stalinism and asserts that the government, using industrial and finance capitalism as the goals, employs Stalinist ruthlessness to groups that it opposes or excludes.

Outline:
Introduction
Signs of Discontent
Indications of Repression
What is Presented, Officially
Stalinism Revisited
Conclusions

From the Paper:

"Maurice Meisner's late 1990s assessment of Chinese economic planning and its social effects convey how one should not be distracted by modest political reforms as promising any great liberalization within a People's Republic of China (PRC) regime that remains fundamentally Stalinist. (1999 538) Elsewhere, Meisner referred to a "fearful social price" that is being paid, and will be paid into the future, for high-growth rate capitalist development from which perhaps two-thirds of an immense and deprived population gain, millions of others left behind. (p.532) If one enjoys studying the longer history of China, political liberalization does not seem a likely result of what the PRC is facing now, or in the coming years."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anderson, A.F., Z. Qingsi, X. Hua and B. Jingfeng. (2003). China's Floating Population and the Potential for HIV Transmission - a social-behavioral perspective. AIDS Care. 15. (2003): 177-185.
• Chang, Gordon. The Coming Collapse in China. London: Arrow-Random House, 2002.
• Chen, An. "Secret Societies and Organized Crime in Contemporary China." Modern Asian Studies. 39. (2005): 77-107.
• Dikkoter, Frank. Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
• Gilley, Bruce. "Should We Try to Predict Transitions to Democracy? - Lessons from China." The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations. Winter-Spring. (2005):113-128, as course resource.

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• Research Paper # 99180 : "The Tiananmen Square Protest"

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