Bücher der Reihe China in the 21st Century

These essays both enhance an understanding of China's immense success in meeting these challenges in the past and provide an indication of the challenges that still lie ahead. China's system reforms have been described as 'groping for stones to cross the river'. The journey across the river is far from over, and the other bank is only dimly visible.

China is becoming ever more deeply integrated with global political economy. This book addresses critical issues in this process. The author examines the paradox of the global market economy that is presided over by 70 million members of the Chinese Communist Party, and analyses Chinas policy of 'innovation in an open environment', attempting to nurture a group of globally competitive, large-scale companies. In addition, the book analyses the challenges that Chinas political economy faces in the twenty-first century, identifying the way in which China is attempting to resolve these contradictions by building on its rich historical experience to regulate market forces. It further examines the wider context of global capitalism within which Chinese development is taking place. Capitalism is the key propulsive force in technical progress. The recent period has seen an unprecedented liberation of this force. However, this force is a two-edged sword. The unprecedented advances have come hand-in-hand with unprecedented challenges that threaten the very survival of the human species. Finally, it studies the relationship between the United States and China. Through cooperative behaviour, the US and China can help lead the world towards a sustainable future for mankind, with a global market economy regulated in the common interest of all human beings. In the absence of such a mechanism, the prospects for humanity are bleak.

Inspired by Max Weber's thesis on the Protestant ethic, 'Overseas Chinese Christian Entrepreneurs in Modern China' sets out to understand the role and influence of Christianity on Overseas Chinese businesspeople working in contemporary China. Through its in-depth interviews and participant observations (involving 60 Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the United States), the text discusses how Christianity has come to fulfill an increasingly visible and dynamic function in the country, most notably as a new source of business morality.Recognizing that China's economic transition toward a market-oriented economy was not initiated by Christians (or indeed any other religious group), this volume demonstrates the importance of exploring the impact of religious ethics on economics at micro and organizational levels, via the subjective understandings of individuals and small businesses. Significant but often neglected facets of Weber's thesis arise as a result. Of key importance is the issue of gender differences within the Christian ethos - a crucial aspect of the Protestant ethic that has yet to be systematically studied, but which offers great potential to enhance our understanding of Weber's work. As a result, the text's novel application of Weberian sociology to the context of contemporary China can be seen to offer a double return, elucidating both the theory and its subject.

The themes dealt with here include some of the most pressing issues for the Chinese and those who interact with China: the impact of Chinas development on the world economic system and on its environment, the likely future stability of China, the very existence of a unified China and the fault lines along which this entity might break apart in the years ahead, and an assessment of the future of the one-party system and what might replace it. Jonathan Fenbys enlightening foreword perfectly frames this engaging and timely exploration of one of the worlds most fascinating cultures.

China's economy has boomed, but a potentially disastrous side effect - along with pollution and a growing income gap between urban and rural regions - is the effects obesity will have on the country's fragile healthcare system. Today's overweight in China can look to a mixed future of bright economic hopes for their country, and poor and deteriorating health for themselves. From a situation 20 years ago when diets were limited by food availability, and famine was still a recent memory, China's urban centres have seen alarmingly rising rates of obesity. Throughout the country an estimated 200 million people out of a total population of around 1.3 billion were overweight (over 15%). Why is this issue so important? Taking into account that the recent period of stable world economic growth has in large part been driven by the availability of cheap labour in China, which produces much of the goods that keep the retail tills ringing elsewhere in the world, the issue of China's rising obesity is an issue of potentially global economic significance. Consider a scenario just a few years down the line, where there are so many overweight urban Chinese, suffering from obesity-related illness, that the government, in order to pay for increased healthcare treatments, has to raise the levels of income and other tax to pay for this huge and continual expense.For more information please see the book website: http://fatchina.anthempressblog.com