Business and Public Administration Studies (E-Journal, Washington Institute of China Studies - WICS)
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Innovations in Cadres Selection and Promotion in China: the Case of Mudanjiang City
Full text linkChina’s new cadre selection and promotion system has been arguably considered as China’s most significant move in securing its implementation of reform strategies. Almost at the same time when he was advocating for China’s economic reform in 1978, the late Deng Xiaoping, China’s reform champion also issued a set of important speeches on reforming China’s cadre selection and promotion protocols in order that there would be enough leadership to help meeting the challenges of the reform needs. His view on what talents are is a de facto mandate leading the way for China’s cadre selection and promotion reform. This paper uses the case of Mudanjiang, a well-known city in China’s northeast, to illustrate how Deng’s Xiaoping’s cadre selection and promotion ideas are implemented. Through literature and documents review, onside observation, person to person interviews, and surveys, the authors examined how cadres are publicly nominated, competitively elected, and scientifically selected in Mudanjian city. They study shows, the cadre open selection mechanisms have worked well, it has opened the door for many talented people who otherwise would not have had the chance to be even noticed by the upper management. The study also reveals some existing problems in the current system and made suggestions for further reform
China Struggles to Reform
Full text linkThe most important role of governments in the world today is to deal with the state of their national economies. Of the 200 or so countries in the world, perhaps half are in some form of serious economic dilemma, and most of the rest face major challenges to keep their economies up with burgeoning demands on them. After the fall of the U.S.S.R., the 15 nations that emerged from it and the countries of the former Soviet bloc in eastern Europe are all struggling to abandon their Soviet style governments and economies and accommodate to a “market tested economy” that few of them really understand. Most of the nations of Sub Saharan Africa have economies that are so weak that they are scarcely able to support even basic public services, especially when the country is in the hands of tyrannical and incompetent governments mired in wars, rebellions and the incursions of terrorist war lords. In the Far East, state socialist governments are also being forced to abandon much of their socialist economies and retreat slowly and reluctantly into some form of market economy. The countries of the Middle East deteriorate because of armed conflicts. Unfortunately, these realities come at a time when the more developed countries of the world are evolving into a complex new “globalization” world which widens the gap over the struggling less developed economies
In memoriam: Bernard T. Pitsvada, Ph.D.
Full text linkA remarkable man and a true friend, and mentor passed away on May 9, 2014. Dr. Bernard T. Pitsvada was a man of many dimensions, and he excelled in each. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1933, and attended Temple University in Philadelphia, but he spent his whole adult life in the service of the United States government. He started out by serving 3 years in the Army (Intelligence) in Japan and Korea. He became interested in the business of governing, and when he got out of the Army he obtained a Ph.D. in Government at American University in 1972. Dr. Pitsvada spent thirty years in the Defense Department, mostly in the Office of the Comptroller. Bernie was a master of the strategies and techniques of public finance, but also a noted expert on the broader issues of U. S. foreign policy, and was the author of highly regarded books on both subjects
Chinese Soldiers as Prisoners in Korea: Ideological Enigma
Full text linkThe handling and dispositions of enemy prisoners of war, as a national responsibility, established itself on the front-burner of America’s attention span, as a crucial sidebar to the war in Iraq. Controversy has, rightly or wrongly, also characterized American views of the military prison facility at Guantanamo Navy Base in Cuba as a detention center. The widely-publicized events at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad focused worldwide attention on how we appeared to be carrying out the responsibility which evolves upon a country with prisoners in its custody
From East to West: The Evolution of China’s FDI Preferential Policies
Full text linkSince 1978, China has gradually opened up and has successfully used its foreign direct investment (FDI) preferential policies to steer FDI into its desired locations and industries in order to facilitate its uneven development strategy. The unbalanced strategy initially gave development priority to China’s eastern coastal region in hopes of establishing viable and strong economic “engines” along the coast and thus spreading out positive effects into its vast interior areas. China’s FDI favored policies, reflecting this strategy, were accordingly skewed to the eastern region in the first 20 years, from 1978 to 1997. This uneven growth distribution has been clearly manifested by the disproportionate FDI concentration in China’s coastal area. It is estimated that over 85% of FDI in the period of 1978-1998 has been located in the eastern coastal region while merely 3% in the western area
Competition or Privatization: China’s Experience in SOE Reform
Full text linkChina is usually recognized in economic transition literature as a special case which achieved tremendous economic success simply through competitive market forces, without fundamental reforms in ownership system. That is, the Chinese model is generally regarded as an alternative to the privatization approach which was widely adopted in East Europe and Russia for economic and especially State Owned Enterprise (SOE) reform.This paper examines the characteristics of the Chinese model and identifies the exact nature of China’s SOE reform. For this purpose, this research adopted a comprehensive literature review as methodology, with particular focus on existing empirical studies on China’s SOE reform and Share Issuance Privatization (SIP). Specifically, first, this paper will describe the process and consequences of economic and SOE reforms in China. Second, it will identify the patterns and features of China’s privatization
Popular Support for Community Self-government in Urban China
Full text linkFrom the outset of the post-Mao reform, the central government has made genuine efforts to adapt the grassroots government system in the urban areas to social changes brought about by the reform in the urban neighborhoods, such as the drastic decline of the role of work units and the rapid increase in private ownership of residential properties. This system was anchored by its self-governing body, Residents’ Committee (RCs, jumin weiyuanhui). Residents’ Committees were first established by the government in the 1950s. Before the post-Mao reform, the central government used RCs to assist work units at the grassroots level in implementing Party and government policies, monitoring and controlling the population, and providing residents with some basic social welfare services. Moreover, the central government treated the RCs as its administrative extensions, in conjunction with work units, at the local level
Relationship between Local Government Management and Community Autonomy in China
Full text linkThe relationship between local government management and community autonomy is not well articulated in the literature. The survey provides status with knowledge about the processes, structures of local government. Local government in China has emphasized numerous interactive features in manage community and resident. In the Yangzi Delta cities, new reform-oriented policies have emphasized autonomy as an important trend for improving governmental performance, and build a stronger popular method for local governments. Ultimately, the autonomy is effective because they work alongside other reforms in local society. By eliciting residents feedback and increasing governmental transparency, especially the relationship between local government management and community autonomy, the autonomy management have become important information sources and managed methods for government managers, but they are more likely to be effective in improving administrative operations, so the study of this paper is necessary
Where is the future: China’s SOEs reform
Full text linkDuring the last 30 years, China has carried out profound economic reforms and achieved tremendous success. The characteristics of the reform reflect decentralization of the macro economy, liberalization of the market, and privatization of SOEs. China’s economic development has experienced four stages: 1) planned economy; 2) planned economy combined with market adjustment; 3) socialist market economy; and 4) new socialist economy under WTO framework in the 21st century. Since SOEs accounted for the major share of the planned economy before 1978, the SOEs reform has become one of the focuses in the process of the economic reform. Accordingly, SOEs have paralleled approximately the same development stages as the entire economy
Japan’s Postwar Settlement in U.S.-Japan Relations: Continuity of Prewar Ideology in Domestic Politics
Full text linkThis year (2006) marks the sixty-first year since Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in the Pacific War and accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. Since then, Japan has apologized many times for the wrongs it committed during its era of militarist expansion. Japan has paid reparations in various forms, including provision of products and services, monetary indemnities and Official Development Assistance (ODA). Nevertheless, many northeast Asians, namely people in China and South Korea, still believe that Japan has not sufficiently atoned for the wrongdoing it committed during its period of militarist expansion. This can be confirmed by the series of violent anti-Japan demonstrations that erupted this past spring (2005) in mainland China. Vehement protests by South Koreans early last year (2005), upon the submission of a bill by the assembly in Shimane Prefecture (Japan’s closest province to the disputed island of Takeshima/Tokdo) to set up a symbolic prefectural ordinance establishing February 22 as Takeshima Day, also reveal much unresolved sentiments among Japan’s neighbors. Opposition by Chinese and South Korean governments to Japan’s bid for a permanent member seat in the United Nations Security Council is another evidence of their dissatisfaction with Japan’s way of dealing with its past. In other words, “although the postwar period is becoming a distant past, it is not over yet, as far as the history issue is concerned.” Japan’s militarist past not only still haunts but also complicates the country’s diplomacy today even more than before.