From the Journal of Chinese Governance, a special issue on Francis Fukuyama and discourse on Chinese governance. The introduction to The Beijing Consensus? How China Has Changed the Western Ideas of Law and Economic Development by Weitseng Chen. William Partlett (Melbourne) and Eric C. Ip (CUHK): The Death of Socialist Law? Tongdong Bai reviews The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy by Daniel A. Bell. David Wertime on the Chinese democratic experiment that never was: Hong Kong protesters get most of the press, but the latest conflict in Wukan means more to mainlanders. Orville Schell on the crackdown in China: Worse and worse. No country for academics: Chinese crackdown forces intellectuals abroad. China’s scary lesson to the world: Censoring the Internet works.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess on how Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism does a disservice to China’s nuanced political tradition. From NYRB, who is Xi? A review essay on Xi Jinping by Andrew J. Nathan. China’s state media try to make thoughts of President Xi cool with rap video about his political theory. Ryan Mitchell on lessons from the Xi Jinping Book Club. Evan Osnos on the cost of the Cultural Revolution, fifty years later. Mao’s life after death: An excerpt from China and the New Maoists by Kerry Brown and Simone Van Nieuwenhuizen. Across the broken bridge: Suki Kim on spies and smugglers in the shadowy underworld of the China-North Korea border. Few expect China to punish North Korea for latest nuclear test.
Back at it with North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Javier Zarracina on 3 charts that explain the North Korean nuclear tests. North Korea’s nuclear test was a sales pitch to other rogue states. North Korea nuclear test: South would reduce Pyongyang “to ashes”. At a North Korean nursery school, tots get an early education in weaponry. Is it time to intervene in North Korea? Negotiations and sanctions haven’t stopped the country from being a menace and human rights abuser. How “crazy” are the North Koreans? North Korea asks for help in the wake of its devastating flood. After North Korea flooding, relief agencies help tens of thousands.
Who is Kim Jong-un? Andrew J. Nathan reviews Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950–1992 by Charles K. Armstrong; Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System and Pyongyang Republic: North Korea’s Capital of Human Rights Denial by Robert Collins; and The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov.
