Lowell Dittmer (Ed.), China’s Political Economy in the Xi Jinping Epoch: Domestic and Global Dimensions, (World Scientific Pub, 2021).
Dr. Suvro Parui
This well-researched volume on China’s political economy, Ed.by Lowell Dittmer exposes domestic and global dimensions of China and the epistemic shift of the nation. A new foreign policy is more assertive and uncompromising toward China’s neighbors, the United States, and the rest of the world has been heralded by Xi Jinping’s rise to power. World politics is multidimensional. Over the centuries, so-called influential socio-political reformers have raised their voices against worldly discrimination. In his 2020 New Year speech, President Xi highlighted the “significant breakthroughs”, which is known as-tell China’s story well (Jiang hao Zhonguo gushi) that had been achieved by the state in economic, scientific and technological development due to “steady pursuit of high-quality development” and consequently everything was flourishing across the motherland, this has been happening in a worldwide setting of easing back exchange and patriot pushback against ‘globalization’.
At the same time, the political texture here, traces the intellectual progression of China and the Chinese economy, including major debates such as the political economy and state capitalism. And the overall understanding that China has long been the quintessential player in world politics. Hence, the review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent. The hypermetropic view of economic liberalization and political diffusion leads to the solidification of state socialism. On the other hand, the party-state’s fiscal response to the global financial crisis left the country with much-improved infrastructure, with a greater sense of national self-assurance. The nationalist pushback against globalization, and bilateral Sino-American polarization is happening in an international context.
On surfing through the four basic sections of this book edited volume, first: the basic introduction of this volume, second: domestic political economy, third: China in the world, and fourth: Conclusion, of course, is a thorough scan of scholarships in the field of Chinese studies. Hence, the synchronic approach to look at the contemporary from socio, political, economic, and of course cultural, interplay behind other global forces and their influence and implications on China.
Additionally, this volume gives a glimpse of equating political business and the new era is connoting a historical shift. Such shifts are systematically fused with the persona of President Xi Jinping in Chinese Official discourse. Here, the authors gave a strong rebuttal and systematic critique of the planning of the experts and researchers of Chinese studies in three components of worldwide morals and global justice. Besides that, we have seen the manoeuvring of dealing with China’s ‘Going Global’ strategy; following this declaration of a methodology when the new century rolled over, numerous Chinese endeavours have dared to contribute and work abroad. Following thirty years as fundamentally a beneficiary of unfamiliar direct speculation (FDI), China has now arisen as a significant FDI-beginning country too. Quite a bit of China’s unfamiliar guide is firmly entrapped with its active FDI, and it has likewise been rising. Beginning around 2013, the Chinese government has been pushing for another One Belt, One Road (OBOR) drive, intending to associate China with nations along the old Silk Road and another maritime Silk Road through a framework venture.
One of the major outcomes of this book is exploring the analysis of the Chinese political economy. Confronting a more serious, global climate change; the focus has moved to economic advancement and political decentralization. The initial chapters are basically a critical analysis of the Chinese political economy. The party-state’s enthusiastic economic response to the Global Financial Crisis (2008-2009) left the country with a significantly better framework and a more prominent feeling of public confidence. In some chapters, authors mention the international context of slowdown exchange and the national pushback against “globalization”, are conspicuous reciprocal Chinese-American polarization. Further, the analysis moves a step ahead towards a laconic historical account of strategic partnerships. Thus, in this volume, the Sino-Euro partnership gradually moves towards conditional engagement with Europe and how it has tried to socialize China with its own norms.
China’s enhanced strategic cooperation with other countries in the domains of political economy, security, and capacity building has been discussed at significant length. Besides, China’s bilateral and multilateral spectrum, it also refers to the immense contribution story by a successful diaspora as a reliable and valid bridge across continents.
China still owns approximately 150,000 SOEs and has also been deeply incorporated into the economic, political-cultural, and social matrix of the continent. Besides a large number of exports across the globe, they themselves have been the bridge of affection between China and the West. President Xi Jinping’s recall in this volume is indeed a long way to go in bringing about the blueprint of enhancing cooperation across the spectrum. A few chapters here clearly pointed out that only deep knowledge about China and its socio-economic engagement can narrow down the gaps between priority and plan; and that would be the bridge up the gap of understanding China well.
The basic relationship between this book and the theory of polarization and bipolarization succinctly analyses the current intra-regional dynamic; and then the effort that the central leadership has put in to fight against poverty until technological innovation is remarkable. Hence, the book rightly traces the issues that CCP has triggered towards a new era of great-power competition. Yet few discern the pattern in China’s inroads within every region of the world, much less the specific form of dominance to which the party aspires, that in the last century was predominantly centered on political and ideological issues and later peacekeeping, development assistance and cultural cooperation.
Here, I observed that China’s political journey accelerates; simultaneously, meeting the China challenge requires the United States to return to the fundamentals. To secure freedom, America must refabricate its foreign policy considering ten tasks that enable the CCP to credibly pursue the quest — proceeding outward through the Indo-Pacific region and encompassing the globe — to achieve “national rejuvenation” culminating in the transformation of the international order. China is also opening a new mission at this crossroads, China has observed two opposite trends at play. One is to revert to a Cold War mentality to deepen division and antagonism and stoke confrontation between blocks. Eventually, Western observers tended to infer the continuing superior performance of the private sector would impel commensurate political changes toward greater pluralism, if not necessarily liberal democracy.
That’s why I strongly recommend this book for the new generation of students and researchers. Overall, this book is an asset for the students of Chinese studies, and it has contributed to deepening their understanding of the underlying implications of evolving dynamics between China and the world. Therefore, it is the way forward for a mutually beneficial partnership.
Overall, this book has been a significant international context of trade resistance and restraint against nationalist “Globalization.” Besides that, it includes bilateral cooperation as well as the bipolar trend of working alongside the United States. China’s analysis has always been in favor of globalization and its beneficiaries, including the very beginning of “decoupling”; However, the extent to which the decoupling must be maintained has not been hinted at; rather, it has triggered technical and financial independence. Further, the inward turning is nonetheless competing with an opposing drive toward more enthusiastic commitment on the global scale.
Despite variations of books on China’s attitude towards world, this volume I came across is a brilliant rendition of ‘China’s political Economy’. It has an extensive analysis of China and its economic foreign policy and of course it’s helpful for the students and researchers in the domain of Chinese studies.
Dr. Suvro Parui is a professor of Chinese Language at the Amity School of Languages.
