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16 May 2007
In this current issue, China Security explores a number of issues critical to China's stability. These include the rise of social conflict in China's vast rural populace, the aging of China's population and the grave situation of China's coal mining safety and the social and political implications it has for the poorest peasants who work in them.
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The world peers worryingly at China's meteoric rise--from its current 11 percent economic growth rate to its 2006 18 percent military budget increase--but the nation's future may rest more on the domestic socioeconomic challenges it faces in the years ahead. This series of articles explores a number of issues critical to China's stability. The first examines the rise of social conflict in China's vast rural populace. With the country's economic success, many winners have been created, but even more have lost out and they are increasingly willing to rise up against the system and defend their legitimate rights. A second article analyzes the aging of China's population. The aging of a population is already a growing problem for most of the developed world. However, the size and complexity of China leads to many unsettling consequences as its society grows old. A third article studies the grave situation of China's coal mining safety and the social and political implications it has for the poorest peasants who work in them.
Reconsidering Economic Openness: A Debate
China's "reform and opening up" policy is now in its third decade and by many measures, it has become one of the most open and globalized nations in the world. While there is much debate in Washington about the effects of these trends on the United States, less attention is paid to its impact in China. Two articles assess the current state of China's economic security and reach different conclusions, particularly about the role of foreign investment activity in China. They represent the two sides of an escalating debate over the future path that China's economy should take.
China's Soft Power Strategy
While the Unites States continues to be bogged down in Iraq, the global strategic landscape continues to shift. This is occurring in changes to military postures and force structures in many countries, but also in the soft power relations between nations. Transformations are occurring with particular importance in East Asia. China Security has initiated a series of studies that will consider China's soft power in its neighborhood and beyond. A first article looks at China's energy security relationship with Southeast Asia and the role this plays in China's grand vision of peaceful rising.
Social Conflict in Rural China, by Yu Jianrong"...as social conflict is seen as a kind of pathology, its legitimacy is often denied and the relevant social groups dangerously dismissed." Yu Jianrong is professor at the Chinese Academy for Social Sciences.
China's Lopsided Population Pyramid, by Li Jianmin "Aging...is merely the 'fuse' to a series of explosive social and institutional ills."Li Jianmin is professor at the School of Economics, Nankai University.
Coal Mining Safety: China's Achilles' Heel, by Tu Jianjun "...the high fatality rates of coal miners are often regarded as a necessary sacrifice to achieve social and economic development targets." Tu Jianjun is an energy consultant of the Canadian Industrial Energy End-use Data and Analysis Center.
Foreign Acquisition in China: Threat or Security? by Wang Zhile "Although enterprises with foreign investments (FIEs) control majority market shares in a few industries, they cannot establish an effective monopoly in the short term." Wang Zhile is the director of the Multi-national Corporation Research Center, Ministry of Commerce.
Economic Security: Redressing Imbalance, by Jiang Yong "...the new [economic] conditions are allowing foreign capital to seek profit at the expense of China's economic security." Jiang Yong is director at the Economic Security Research Center in China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Southeast Asia and Energy: Gateway to Stability, by Zhang Xuegang "The interdependencies...inherently serve to relieve Southeast Asian fears of the 500-pound gorilla in their midst." Zhang Xuegang is an associate professor in China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
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