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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
T H E OX F O R D H I S T O R Y O F
MODERN CHINA
JEFFREY N. WASSERSTROM is the Chancellor’s Pro-
fessor of History at the University of California, Irvine,
where he also holds courtesy appointments in Law and
in Literary Journalism. He has written, co-written,
edited, or co-edited a dozen books on topics ranging
from human rights and revolutions to gender in Chinese
history. His most recent books are, as author, Vigil:
Hong Kong on the Brink (), and, as coauthor, the
third edition of China in the st Century: What Every-
one Needs to Know (). He is a past editor of the
Journal of Asian Studies (–) and a past Asso-
ciate Editor of the American Historical Review. He is a
member of the editorial board of Dissent Magazine and
is the advising editor for China for the Los Angeles
Review of Books. In addition to writing for scholarly
periodicals, he often contributes to newspapers (includ-
ing the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Guardian, and the Hindu) and magazines (such as the
TLS, the Atlantic, Internazionale, and the American
Scholar). He has spoken at literary festivals in Europe,
Asia, and the United States and served as a consultant on
“The Gate of Heavenly Peace,” a prize-winning docu-
mentary film about the Tiananmen protests and June th
Massacre.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
THE OXFORD
HISTORY OF
MODERN
CHINA
EDITED BY
JEFFREY N. WASSERSTROM
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
3
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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
T origins of this book lie in late and early . This was
a notable moment in China’s history, as it was just then that Xi
Jinping, the current leader of the People’s Republic of China
(PRC), was being chosen first to become head of the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) and then serve as President as well,
posts that he was expected to hold for ten years before relin-
quishing them to his successor toward the end of and the
beginning of , respectively. While a changing of the guard
was taking place in Beijing, I was inviting a variety of experts in
modern Chinese history, each of whom had demonstrated mas-
tery of a particular period and shown a flair for communicating
with general readers as well as fellow specialists, to join me in
carrying out a kind of literary relay race across more than four
centuries of China’s past. More specifically, I asked these
scholars, most of them trained as historians but with some pol-
itical scientists mixed in as well, to help me tell the tale of China’s
modern period, which I was choosing to define as beginning in
the final years of the Ming Dynasty (–), for reasons
explained below in my “Introduction” to this volume.
The finish line in this relay would be the aftermath of the
Beijing Olympics, an event that continues to stand out as a major
turning point in the PRC’s rise to global prominence. After all
these main chapters, though, the baton would be handed off one
more time, for a victory lap of sorts, carried this time by historic-
ally minded journalist Ian Johnson. My brief to him was to write a
“Coda” devoted to the “Presence of the Past” in an era that finds
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
vi Preface
the CCP presenting itself as an organization that draws on the
wisdom of Confucius while staying true to the traditions of Marx,
Lenin, and Mao Zedong (–)—a tricky balancing act when
we remember that the last of these considered the first a “feudal”
thinker whose beliefs had long hindered China’s pursuit of modernity.
The hardback edition of the book was published midway
through , just a year-and-a-half ago. Given that so little
time has passed since then, the text has not been updated except
for the correction of a few errors. In ordinary times, it might seem
unnecessary to comment in a Preface such as this about what has
transpired since the original version of the book appeared. Some-
times, though, things that occur in an eighteen-month period can
do enough to alter the domestic situation within a country, the
way it is viewed by people living in other places, its standing in
the international order, or all of these things to justify at least a
brief discussion of recent events. As later chapters will show, for
example, in the case of China, a book initially published in the
middle of and then reissued in would certainly have
benefitted from prefatory remarks on the intervening end of
dynastic rule, and even though China’s political system was not
altered by the protests and massacre of , it would have been
important to preface a paperback edition of a work
with comments on the tragedy of the previous June.
Nothing as monumental as the Revolution has taken
place since the middle of . It is also too soon to tell if the
events of the last year-and-a-half will come to stand out as a
counterpart to other decidedly lesser but still significant turning
point moments, which left the political system in place while
altering other things. There is a good case to be made, though,
that the brief period since the hardback edition appeared has
been so extraordinary when it comes to Chinese domestic politics
and, even more so, China’s place in the world, that an effort to
take stock briefly of the current context is in order.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
Preface vii
Let’s begin with what recent months have revealed or under-
scored about Xi. When the original edition was published, he
was already being described as the most powerful figure China
had seen since Mao, who ruled the PRC from its founding in
until his death in , and Deng Xiaoping, his most
influential successor. There were not yet, though, academic cen-
ters devoted to the study of “Xi Jinping Thought,” as there now
are. Nor had Xi, his eponymous set of ideas, and even the
main international policy associated with him, the “Belt and
Road Initiative,” been formally proposed for inclusion in China’s
Constitution. Only Mao, who held power from until his
death twenty-seven years later, had seen his name and creed
invested with this sort of sacred status while he was still alive,
as even Deng, who was the most powerful person in China from
the late s until his death in , only received it
posthumously.
More generally, in , it was still the norm to break the
history of the PRC into two main chunks of time, with the brief
rule by Mao’s immediate successor, Hua Guofeng, treated as a
transitory interregnum. There were the Mao Years, which ended
in , and a Reform Era, which had begun at the end of
or start of and was assumed to still be underway. At the
th Party Congress in October , however, Xi pronounced
that a “New Era,” a third PRC epoch, had begun. Another
important thing happened—or, rather, did not happen—during
that Party Congress. While the CCP conformed to recent trad-
ition by formally announcing the foregone conclusion that Xi
would be appointed for a second five-year term as the organiza-
tion’s head, they did not make it clear who would succeed him
when the next Congress was held. This has fueled speculation
that Xi may diverge from the pattern set by Jiang Zemin and Hu
Jintao, his immediate predecessors, and stay in control of the
country for more than ten years. He might well, some say, as only
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
viii Preface
a few were suggesting as recently as mid-, take a page from
Vladimir Putin’s playbook and find a way to stay in power.
Will the idea of marking the start of a “New Era” gain
traction in the coming years or fade away? Only time will tell.
Some future historians may argue for continuity stretching from
Deng’s time to the end of Xi’s days in power, whenever that
comes. Others may insist that a third epoch has started, but
claim it began at the moment Xi took power or earlier still.
After all, the ratcheting up of controls on civil society that are
among the hallmarks of the Xi era can be traced back as far as the
midpoint in Hu’s decade in power, and while China’s current
leader has shown greater proclivity for quoting the classics than
any previous one, the wave of renewed reverence for Confucius
began around the turn of the millennium and made its mark on
the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Games. Still, regard-
less of just how large they end up looming in future works of
history, the recent domestic developments associated with Xi
noted above deserve mention here.
If these were the only significant political events that had taken
place since the middle of , however, writing this Preface
would have been merely optional, not essential. What makes it
feel crucial to include it is something that occurred across the
Pacific from the PRC, which may have profound implications for
the trajectory of Chinese history. At this writing, the unexpected
election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United
States seems to have provided Xi with new opportunities in the
international arena, and distracted global scrutiny of the ongoing
moves to silence opposition within the PRC, that in another
period would have gotten more attention from foreign commen-
tators and observers. The broader slide of America’s global
reputation, and, in Asia at least, doubts about its full commit-
ment to treaty obligations, has been a political gift for Xi.
This has led to seismic shifts in the world order that make the
centuries-long trajectory of China’s decline from, and return to,
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
Preface ix
international prominence feel differently than it did in mid-.
Then, the PRC was a country that had surged ahead economically
in extraordinary ways, but which still seemed more of a regional
than a truly global power, a secondary rather than primary player
in some key international spheres. Now, this is no longer the case.
One way to put this issue into perspective is to ponder the
question of which world leaders at different periods of time have
been credible candidates for the title of most powerful individual
on earth. China’s emperor might have been a good candidate for
this position at various points in the distant past, but thanks to
the military and diplomatic defeats that the country experienced
during the final decades of rule by the Qing Dynasty (–),
no one would have thought of asserting that any Chinese leader
of the s through the early twentieth century was the most
powerful person on the planet. During much of the late Qing era
and the entire Republican period (–), in fact, thanks to
Japan’s surge, China’s top leader was not even the most influen-
tial individual in Asia.
Even in mid-, it was still assumed that when China’s top
leader met the President of the United States, the most that could
be said of the former was that this person might be a fairly close
second in influence and clout to the latter. By the fall of , by
contrast, The Economist was describing the Xi-Trump summit in
Beijing as one in which the more “powerful” individual was the
one playing host. The magazine was not alone in this assessment.
Eighteen months is a very short period when it comes to the
centuries-long view of China’s past provided in the chapters that
follow, let alone within the much longer sweep of Chinese history
as a whole. In addition, if history is any guide, one thing we can
be sure of is that Xi and Trump, a pair of strongman leaders who
share important traits even while the restrained speaking style of
the former and bombastic one of the latter are a study in con-
trasts, will be viewed differently than they are today, both within
their own countries and globally. Still, there is no question that,
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
x Preface
thanks in part to these two men, the international order is not the
same now as it was a year-and-a-half ago. And the changes that
have taken place have implications for not just the present and
the future but also, in less obvious ways, for how the past is
viewed and understood. Coincidentally or not, Xi and Trump
both like to tell simplistic stories about history to present them-
selves as leading grand missions to revive past glories. This book
strives to show the value of taking a longer and more nuanced
view, which emphasizes, along with other things, how politically
charged stories about the past are themselves one of the results—
but not the only result—of complex historical processes.
J N. W,
January
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
CONTENTS
xii Contents
. THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION ERA,
–
Richard Curt Kraus
. REFORM AND REBUILDING,
–
Timothy Cheek
. TIANANMEN AND ITS AFTERMATH,
–
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Kate
Merkel-Hess
. CHINA RISING, –
William A. Callahan
. THE PEOPLE’S LEADER: THE XI
JINPING ERA OF CHINESE POLITICS
Diana Fu and Emile Dirks
THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST—A CODA
Ian Johnson
Timeline
Further Reading
Index
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
LIST OF MAPS
A GUIDE TO PRONOUNCING
ROMANIZED CHINESE
(WADE-GILES AND PINYIN)
The is pronounced
letter as . . . Some examples
c ts, as in “its” cai (pronounced “ts-eye”; n. vegetable)
q ch, as in Qing Dynasty is pronounced “Ching”
“check” Dynasty
x sh, as in “she” Deng Xiaoping is pronounced “Deng
Shiaoping”
zh “j” Zhou Enlai is pronounced “Joe Enlai”;
Zhou Dynasty is pronounced “Joe Dynasty”
All other sounds can be pronounced as they are written.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 24/11/2021, SPi
a a a (as in star)
e e e (as in set)
i i e (as in he) or i (as in machine)
ou ou o (as in over)
u u oo (as in too)
en en un (as in under)
ih i ir (as in bird—no exact English equivalent)
u u German u (no exact English equivalent)
ai ai ie (as in lie) or i ( as in i)
ei ei ay (as in day)
ao ao ow (as in now)
uo uo oo ( as in too) plus ou (as in ought)
ui, uei ui oo (as in too) plus ay (as in day)
ung ong oo (as in book) plus ng (as in thing)
Introduction
JEFFREY N. WASSERSTROM
Language: German
Die Primadonna
Die
Primadonna
Roman
von
Olga Wohlbrück