Hello, it’s Eric again, this time with a more substantive post.
To start off with, I’m personally rather interested in China and Chinese government policy, both as my area of study at UC Berkeley, but also because I think that for better or for worse, China will be the second most powerful international actor in a few years time. Pretty much for that reason I’ve gotten mixed up in a variety of things to do with China. I’ve studied at Peking University (Beida), and been invited as a guest of the Chinese government to Shanghai for presentations. I instruct a student-led course at Berkeley on US-China-Taiwan Affairs, and my personal library is flooded with works on China.
At the same time though, I’m excited by the fact that I don’t really have much clue as to what’s going on. 
So we’ll learn, discuss, and debate together on what’s happening in the People’s Republic of China, and see what we find out. Agreed?
To begin with, let’s take a look at where China is today, and where it isn’t.
Many people argue that China is one thing or China is another, and this is where they make their first mistake. To be honest, not even the Chinese know what China is anymore, and this is largely due to the fact that China is no longer a monolithic state. In previous times, during the eras of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, China was directed by what is academically known as a “paramount leader“, which pretty much means that what they wanted always happened without question. So if Mao wanted the Great Leap Forward, he got it. If Deng wanted economic reform, it happened right away. This is where we get the idea that Beijing controls anything and everything in China, and has massive supernatural powers that our President can only dream of.
Today, the Chinese political scene isn’t actually all that different from the one found in the United States. There are power struggles within the Party, such as the sacking of high-ranking officials in Shanghai. People protest when their freedoms are violated, as in the case of a killed reporter. And China, like the US, goes to places for strategic energy needs like Sudan. Conflicts of interest are everywhere in Chinese politics, termed the tiaokuai guanxi.
This means that for us, the politics of China have become much more complicated. As a Cabinet, domestic interests need to be weighed against foreign policy, something that didn’t really bother Chinese leaders prior to the mid 1980’s. So, whether it be the interests of farmers, investors, provincial governments, or the military, there’s going to be some sort of external pressure for Beijing to act.
On the plus side, the last twenty to thirty years has made China much stronger, economically and militarily. Since they’ve moved on from a strict socialist-style command economy, to a system called “socialism with Chinese characteristics”, the Chinese standard of living and economy has been booming. And of course with these funds come the long awaited period of military modernization. Both a strong economy and massive military give you many more options to play with.
So the big question, one that you’ll have to face in March along side virtually every scholar who studies East Asian politics, is what will China do with its new power? Some argue that China is a revisionist power, one that seeks to substantially change the international order and norms that were created without the consent of the Chinese people. Others point out that China is clearly a status quo power, that appreciates the order that the international community brings, and therefore won’t change much.
Oh, and one last thing. I might have used some terms here, in either Chinese or Political Science-ese, that you may not understand. That’s perfectly fine, because I didn’t know them either. That is, until I asked. So if there’s anything, at any point, that you don’t quite get, please post a comment or email me, and we’ll sort it out.
-Eric
if you have any questions or concerns!