Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era New Leaders, New Challenges

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with top Chinese officials, parliamentarians, scholars, and businessmen, a renowned journalist and writer on Chinese affairs presents a first-hand, multi-dimensional account of twenty-first century China and the impact of fourth generation leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jibao. Willy Lam goes behind the glitzy facade of nouveau-riche Beijing and Shanghai to examine how the Hu leadership has tried to extend the Communist Party's "mandate of heaven" by tackling an array of daunting problems, including the weakening legitimacy of the Party's leadership, restive peasants, angry workers, political stagnation over the lack of reform, foreign relations difficulties, unreliable energy supplies, resurgent nationalism, and the increasingly dubious "Chinese model" of development. Lam assesses possible contributions that the new classes of private businessmen, professionals, and intellectuals-as well as new ideas such as nationalism, globalization, and federalism-will make to economic prosperity and political liberalization. The book also includes a chapter on foreign policy, which contains an insightful account of Beijing's evolving and sometimes-difficult relations with the United States, Europe, Japan, and other major countries and blocs, as well as the role of the People's Liberation Army.Lam, Willy Wo-Lap is the author of 'Chinese Politics in the Hu Jintao Era New Leaders, New Challenges', published 2006 under ISBN 9780765617736 and ISBN 0765617730.