Economic Openness and Territorial Politics in China [Paperback]

This book is concerned with the causes and consequences of the evolving political ties and growing economic openness in modern China.This book is concerned with the causes and consequences of the evolving political ties that bond the national-level political authorities and their subnational units under growing economic openness, with an empirical focus on post-1978 China. Taking issue with existing research that emphasizes the demands for regional autonomy from below, it focuses on the incentives and institutional resources of the national political leaders.This book is concerned with the causes and consequences of the evolving political ties that bond the national-level political authorities and their subnational units under growing economic openness, with an empirical focus on post-1978 China. Taking issue with existing research that emphasizes the demands for regional autonomy from below, it focuses on the incentives and institutional resources of the national political leaders.Why and how has the Chinese central government so far managed to fend off the centrifugal forces under rising globalization that are predicted to undermine national-level political authority everywhere? When institutionally empowered by centralized governing political parties as in China, national politicians confronting the menace of economic openness will resort to exercising tighter political control over the subnational governments of the winner regions in the global markets. Although its goal is to facilitate revenue extraction, redress domestic economic disparity, and prolong the rule of national leaders, regionally targeted central political control could engender mixed economic consequences at the subnational level. Yumin Sheng examines the political response of the Chinese central government, via the ruling Chinese Communist Party, to the territorial challenges of the countrys embrace of the world markets, and the impact of the regionally selective exercise of political control3(