Understanding China: A Guide to China's Economy, History and Political Culture FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this succinct, modest, and refreshingly clearheaded book, John Bryan Starr introduces the uninitiated reader to the background, basic data, and issues at stake in China's crisis-ridden present and past situation.
The complexities of the Chinese government since the death of Deng Xiaoping in February 1997, revelations about China's influence in our election campaigns, and China's eagerness to acquire advanced American technology are only some of the issues that show how urgently we need to know and understand China better than we do. Since Understanding China was first published in 1997, there have been still more important developments in China, and in this revised edition Starr focuses his shrewd attention on them all. Additional material has been added on matters such as China's relations with Taiwan and with Tibet, the Hong Kong transfer, China's nuclear weapons program, and the nation's environmental and human-rights record.
John Bryan Starr, who served as president of both the Yale China Association and the China Institute in New York City, is managing director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform in Providence, Rhode Island. He lives in New Canaan, Connecticut.
"An excellent introduction to China for anyone in search of solid but concise information about that complicated country. Packed with facts and figures, but enlivened with firsthand observations." (Lucian W. Pye, The New York Times)
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Derived from a course on contemporary Chinese politics taught at Yale (where he was head of Yale's China Association; Starr is now director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown U.), this revised edition of the 1997 text offers an overview of the geography, political systems, power structure and economic makeup of China before turning to problem areas such as environmental pollution, ethnic separatism, population growth, urban and rural concerns. China's relations with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and its broader economic, political, and strategic relations round out this study, which is supplemented with maps and tables. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Internet Book Watch
John Starr's Understanding China: A Guide To China's Economy, History, And Political Culture is an impressive and comprehensive survey of mainland China's geography, political structure, military establishment, economics, and recent history. Invaluable and indispensable reading for students of contemporary Chinese culture and society, Understanding China is an outstanding compendium of current reports on such critical issues as the status of Taiwan and Hong Kong, the nature of the Chinese armed forces upon the Chinese economy; the uneven development and structure of Chinese commerce and finance; the problems inherent between autocratic governance and democratic rule; the role of the arts; and more. Understanding China is very highly recommended and informative reading for American policy makers, businessmen, journalists, students of Chinese affairs, as well as China-bound travelers.
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