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WORK TITLE: China’s World
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1967
WEBSITE: http://www.kerry-brown.co.uk/
CITY: London
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
Phone :(0044)7723 054525; Mobile Number: 0061 401 687 815; http://insidestory.org.au/authors/kerry-brown/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1967.
EDUCATION:Cambridge University, M.A., 1989; Thames Valley University, London, post-graduate diploma, 1993; Leeds University, Ph.D., 2004.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. Torahime High School, Japan, teacher, 1990-91; Inner Mongolia Medical College, China, lecturer, 1994-96; Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, England, employee, 1998-2000, first secretary for Beijing, 2000-03, head of Indonesia East Timor section, 2003-05; head of the Europe China Research and Advice Network, 2011-14; University of Sydney, Australia, professor, director of China Studies Centre, 2012-15; King’s College London, England, professor, director of Lau China Institute; Chatham House, London, England, associate fellow in Asia Programme.
WRITINGS
Also, co-editor of Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power, Berkshire, 2009, and editor of China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors, Pagrave Macmillan, 2014 and China 2020: The Next Decade for the People’s Republic of China. Contributor to publications, including the London Guardian, London Telegraph, New York Times, Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Australian, and Australian Financial Review. Editor-in-chief of “Berkshire Dictionary of China Biography” series.
SIDELIGHTS
Kerry Brown is writer and educator, whose work is focuses primarily on China and China’s relations with other countries. He holds a master’s degree from Cambridge University, a post-graduate diploma from Thomas Valley University, and a Ph.D. from Leeds University. Brown worked as a teacher in Japan and China before joining the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. For that organization, served as the first secretary for Beijing and the head of the Indonesia East Timor section. Brown went on to lead the Europe China Research and Advice Network. From 2012 to 2015, he was a professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. He later joined King’s College London, where he has worked as a professor and directed the Lau China Institute.
Berkshire Encyclopedia of China, Ballot Box China, and Hu Jintao
Brown and Linsun Cheng edited Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power. “The entries vary widely in quality. Some are tightly written surveys of their subjects. … Others are elementary and lack coherence,” commented: B.T. Vivier in Choice. A contributor to Internet Bookwatch described the book as “knowledgeably compiled” and stated: “Berkshire Encyclopedia of China is a core reference which is highly recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library International Studies collections.”
In Ballot Box China: Grassroots Democracy in the Final Major One-Party State, Brown discusses voting and elections in China in the year since Mao died. J.D. Gillespie, reviewer in Choice, asserted: “Ballot Box China is clearly among the most engaging, informative works on contemporary Chinese politics.”
Brown profiles the former President of the People’s Republic of China in Hu Jintao: China’s Silent Ruler. He focuses on Hu’s style of leadership.
Contemporary China, The New Emperors, and Carnival China
Contemporary China offers information on the nation’s culture, its economy, and its political landscape. “Brown … has crafted an introduction to contemporary China suitable for the general reader,” asserted J.M. Peek in Choice.
Brown examines the career arc of Chinese leaders in The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China. London Telegraph Online reviewer, Julia Lovell, noted: “In The New Emperors, Kerry Brown, an expert China-watcher, provides a valuable overview of these seven extraordinarily powerful men.” Writing in the New Zealand International Review, Anthony Smith suggested: “This is a well-written and fascinating account of the structures and personalities that run China. The strength of this book is that it is very accessible, which one senses is exactly the intention of the author.” “What makes Mr. Brown’s book unique is the attention he directs toward the individuals at the top of the party structure. … Mr. Brown struggles gamely to flesh out even our knowledge of Zhang Gaoli, the Standing Committee member from the most modest background,” asserted Jeffrey Wasserstrom on the Wall Street Journal website. Wasserstrom continued: “Mr. Brown makes the most of every bit of personal information in circulation and has closely read official party documents.” “He is an informed and engaging expert with admirable access to Beijing policy circles,” remarked Stephen Mina on the San Francisco Review of Books website. Mina recommended the book to “students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business. The media regularly uses shorthand descriptions like ‘princelings’ and ‘once-in-a-decade leadership transition’ when reporting on Beijing. This shorthand is necessary but can mislead. This book goes a long way toward explaining the complexity that it conceals.” Mina concluded: “The New Emperors effectively demonstrates how much is still to play for behind the edifice of China’s ‘institutionalized transition of power’.”
Brown discusses China’s political leaders in Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. Writing on the South China Morning Post website, David Wilson commented: “Sometimes, apparently worried about riling Beijing, Brown meekly backpedals and questions his right as an outsider to judge. Still, Carnival China hits home, persuasively making the case that, at its core, China remains an Orwellian state that will not brook any dissent.”
China and the EU in Context and Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography
In China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors, Brown includes essays on the increasing number of business deals between entities from the EU and China. Brown is the editor of China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors. Choice reviewer, S.J. Gabriel, noted that the book was “recommended [for] informed general readers.”
Brown, Cheng, and Qiang Zha edited the multivolume work, Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography. Vivier, the contributor to Choice, suggested that the first volume featured “a chronological balance especially welcome in a general reference work of this sort.” However, of the fourth volume, Vivier remarked: “Some entries are not entirely appropriate either for novice scholars or advanced researchers, and the weakest entries are poorly edited and repetitive.” An Internet Bookwatch writer described the volumes as “an impressive and seminal work of outstanding scholarship and a critically important addition to academic library biographical reference collections.”
CEO, China and China's World
Brown chronicles the life of a powerful Chinese leader in CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping. He offers details on Xi’s childhood, his relatives, his political career, and his style of leadership. Willis M. Buhle, writer in Reviewer’s Bookwatch, commented: “CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping must be considered essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how China operates today.”
In China’s World: What Does China Want?, Brown comments on contemporary Chinese foreign relations. “Brown unravels a tangled web of motivations that influence China’s foreign policy thinking,” noted a Publishers Weekly critic. The same critic praised “the book’s timeliness and relevance.” Mike Cormack, reviewer on the China Channel website, suggested: “As an overview into the binds and struggles of Chinese foreign policy, China’s World is excellent. It is clear, well organized if perhaps slightly too schematic, detailed without being onerous, and sports an impressively broad understanding of a remarkably complex field.” Cormack continued: “There might be quibbles about the zoning: Australia should get far more attention, as the leading Western-aligned nation drawn into China’s diplomatic and economic orbit. More could also be said about China’s shambolic soft power efforts, and a number of countries will disagree with China’s designation of some issues as being purely domestic, such as the status of Hong Kong and Taiwan.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, January, 2010, B.T. Vivier, review of Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power, p. 867; December, 2011, J.D. Gillespie, review of Ballot Box China: Grassroots Democracy in the Final Major One-Party State, p. 762; December, 2013, J.M. Peek, review of Contemporary China, p. 718; October, 2014, B.T. Vivier, review of Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, p. 234; November, 2014, S.J. Gabriel, review of China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors, p. 497; April, 2017, B.T. Vivier, review of Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography: v.4, p. 1150.
Internet Bookwatch, September, 2009. review of Berkshire Encyclopedia of China; March, 2014, review of Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, p. 34.
New Zealand International Review, May-June, 2015, Anthony Smith, review of The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China, p. 31.
Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2017, review of China’s World: What Does China Want?, p. 127.
Reference & Research Book News, December, 2011, review of China 2020; the next decade for the People’s Republic of China; December, 2012, review of Hu Jintao: China’s Silent Ruler.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, July, 2016, Willis M. Buhle, review of CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping.
Xpress Reviews, September 30, 2016, Casey Watters, review of CEO, China.
ONLINE
Asian Review of Books, http://asianreviewofbooks.com/ (November 21, 2017), Francis P. Sempa, review of China’s World.
China Channel, https://chinachannel.org/ (November 27, 2017), Mike Cormack, review of China’s World.
Inside Story, http://insidestory.org.au/ (March 21, 2018), author profile.
Kerry Brown Website, http://www.kerry-brown.co.uk/ (March 21, 2018).
London Telegraph Online, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (July 12, 2014), Julia Lovell, review of New Emperors.
LSE Review of Books, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ (November 3, 2014), Stephen Minas, review of New Emperors.
San Francisco Review of Books, http://www.sanfranciscoreviewofbooks.com/ (May 16, 2017), Stephen Minas, review of New Emperors.
South China Morning Post Online, http://www.scmp.com/ (June 15, 2014), David Wilson, review of Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.
Wall Street Journal Online, https://www.wsj.com/ (September 11, 2014), Jeffrey Wassertstrom, review of New Emperors.
KERRY BROWN
Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College, London. From 2012 to 2015, he was Professor and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College, London. Prior to this he was the Professor of Chinese Politcs and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He led the Europe China Research and Advice Network(ECRAN) funded by the European Union from 2011 to 2014. He is an Associate Fellow on the Asia Programme at Chatham House, London. His main interests are in the politics and society of modern China, in its international relations and its political economy.
Educated at Cambridge (MA), London (Post Graduate Diploma in Chinese with Distinction) and Leeds Universities (Ph D), he worked in Japan and the Inner Mongolian region of China,before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London in 1998. He worked in the China Section and then served as First Secretary, Beijing, from 2000 to 2003, and Head of the Indonesia East Timor Section at the FCO from 2003 to 2005.
Kerry Brown has been published in most major newspapers, commenting on China and Asia, including the New York Times, The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Australian Financial Review, the Australian, the South China Morning Post, and the Financial Times. He has also been interviewed since 2006 by the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, Bloomberg, ABC and other outlets. He had undertaken consultancy for Mizuho Bank, BP, Oxford Analytica, Hakluyt, Tesco and other corporates.
He completed a Ph D at Leeds University in Modern Chinese Language and Politics in 2004, which has since been published as `The Cultural Revolution in the Inner Mongolian Region of the People's Republic of China 1966-1969: A Function of Language, Violence and Politics,' part of the Global Oriental Cambridge University Inner Asian Studies Series. He is the author of the following books:
`Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century’ (London, June 2007)
`The Rise of the Dragon – Chinese Investment Flows in the Reform Period’ (Oxford, February 2008)
`Friends and Enemies: The Past, Present and Future of the Communist Party of China' (London, 2009)
`China 2020', (edited) (Oxford, 2011)
`Ballot Box China' (London, 2011)
`Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler', (Singapore, April 2012)
`Contemporary China' (London, 2013)
`Shanghai 2020: The City's Vision for its Future' (Beijing and Shanghai, in Chinese and English, January 2014)
`Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping', (Imperial College Press, London, May)
`The New Emperors: Power and the Party in China' . (I B Tauris, London and New York, April)
`China and the EU in Context' (Edited), (Palgrave MacMillan, London, April) `The EU and China: A Policy Toolkit' (Edited), (Imperial College Press, London, June)
Kerry Brown is also the Editor in Chief or the Berkshire Dictionary of China Biography, issued between January 2014 and November 2015, in four volumes:
Kerry Brown – Resume
Address c/o China Studies Centre, University of Sydney, Australia
Telephone 0061 401 687 815
Email kerry.brown01@googlemail.com
Website: www.kerry-brown.co.uk
Career Details
2012- Director of the China Studies Centre and Professor of Chinese Politics, University of Sydney, Australia.
Associate Fellow, Asia Programme, Chatham House
Team Leader, Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN)
2005- 2012 Senior Fellow, and then Head, Asia Programme, Chatham House, London, running the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) for the EU.
2009- Research Associate, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
2010- Associate, IDEAS Centre, London School of Economics
2003-2005 Head of the Indonesia, Philippines and East Timor Section, at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, in charge of UK’s political relationship with these countries.
2000-2003 First Secretary, British Embassy, Beijing.
1998-1999 Entered British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Head, China Section, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
1996-1998 Business Manager, H and T Walker, trading with China.
1994-1996 Lecturer in English, Post Graduate Students, Inner Mongolia Medical College, China.
1990-1991 Secondary school teacher, Torahime High School, Japan
Academic
2007 Visiting Research Fellow, East Asian Studies Centre, London School of Economics. Associate, China Policy Centre, Nottingham University, UK
2003 Extensive (advanced) Mandarin Chinese Foreign Office Language Exam.
1998-2004 Ph D, Department of East Asian Studies, Leeds University. Thesis published in 2006 by Global Oriental Ltd, UK.
1992-1993 Post Graduate Diploma in Mandarin Chinese, with Distinction, Thames Valley University, London. Awarded language award from Great Britain China Centre, UK.
1986-1989 MA in English Literature, from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Awarded Webb Essay Prize, 1989.
Publications
Books
`The Purge of the Inner Mongolian People’s Party in the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1967-1969: A Function of Language, Power and Violence’, Global Oriental Cambridge University Inner Asian Studies Series, 2006
`Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century,’ Anthem Press, June 2007
`Rise of the Dragon: The Story of Chinese Inward and Outward Investment During the Reform Period’, Chandos Publishing, (January 2008)
`Friends and Enemies: The Past, Present, and Future of the Communist Party of China’ (Anthem, London, 2009)
`China 2020: The Coming Decade’ Edited, (Chandos Publishing, Oxford, 2011)
`Ballot Box China: Rural Democracy and Why it Matters for the Future of the People’s Republic’, (Zed Books, 2011)
`Hu Jintao: China’s Silent Ruler’ (World Scientific, Singapore, 2012)
`Contemporary China’ (Palgrave MacMillan, London, 2013)
`Dictionary of Chinese Biography’ (Chief Editor), Berkshire Publishing USA, forthcoming 2014
`The EU in Context’ (Editor), Palgrave MacMillan, London, 2014
`Carnival China: Politics in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping’ (Imperial College Press, London, 2014)
`The New Emperors: Power and the Party in China’ (I B Tauris, London and New York, forthcoming 2014)
Shanghai 2020: The Future of China’s Great Cosmopolitan City’, (China Foreign Languages Press, 2014)
Book Chapters
`The Communist Party of China’, in Chris Ogden (Ed) `Routledge Handbook of Chinese Governance and Domestic Politics’, Routledge 2012
`China’s Military Industrial Complex’ (with Claude Zanardi) in Anna Stravianarkis and Jan Selby (ed), `Militarism and International Relations: Political Economy, Security, Theory’ (Routledge 2012)
`New Labour Policy towards China’ in Oliver Daddow and Jamir Gaskarth (Eds), `British Foreign Policy: The New Labour Years’, Palgrave MacMillan 2011
`Chinese Softpower’ in Shaun Breslin (Ed) `Routledge Handbook of International Relations’ Routledge, 2010
`China’ in Robin Niblett (Ed), `US and the World’, Blackwell and Brookings, 2010
Essays and Articles
`Taiwan and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland: Parallels and Divergences’, Taiwan in Comparative Perspective, Volume 4, December 2012, LSE, London
`The Communist Party of China and Ideology’, China: An International Journal, August 2012
`Chinese Foreign Direct Investment’ in `International Spectator’, Volume 47, No 2, June 2012
`Wang Hui’ in `Journal of Contemporary Chinese, January 2011
`Village Elections: An Assessment’, in East Asian Policy, Singapore, Summer 2010
`Chinese Overseas Investment and Its Impact’ in Harvard Asia Review, December 2008.
`The Challenges of the Chinese Environment: EU and Chinese Co-operation in Context’ – European Strategic Forum, Brussels (2008)
`How the Other Half live in China’, International Affairs, January 2007
`The Cultural Revolution in Inner Mongolia’, Journal of the Royal Association of Asian Affairs, Summer 2007
`On Being Mongolian’ , Critical Asian Studies, Autumn 2004
Have had articles published in China Review (UK), Critical Asian Studies (USA), China Journal (Australia), China Information (Sweden), Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (UK), International Affairs (UK), China Trade (UK), PN Review (UK), Online Asian Review of Books and Hong Kong Standard (Hong Kong), and Jacket Magazine (Australia), The Guardian (co-writer of Chinese Leadership obituaries), The World Today, IISS Journal, China Daily, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent on Sunday, Literary Review, Index on Censorship, Sunday Post, Times Literary Supplement.
Kerry Brown
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Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London
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Author or editor of the following books:
`The Purge of the Inner Mongolian People's Party' (Global Oriental Cambridge University Inner Asian Study series, 2006)
`Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century' (Anthem Press, London, 2007)
`The Rise of the Dragon: Chinese Inward and Outward Investment in the Reform Era' (Chandos, Oxford, 2008)
`Friends and Enemies: The Past, Present and Future of the Communist Party of China,' (Anthem Press, London, 2009)
`Ballot Box China', (Zed Books, London, 2011)
`China 2020,' (editor), (Chandos Press, Oxford, 2011)
`Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler' (World Scientific Press, Singapore, 2012)
`Contemporary China' (Palgrave Macmillian, Basingstoke, 2013).
`Shanghai 2020: The City's Vision For its Future' (Foreign Language Press, Beijing, 2013) (in Chinese, English and Russian)
`Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping,' Imperial College Press, London, 2014)
`The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China', (I B Tauris, London and New York, 2014)
`China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors' (editor) (Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, 2014)
`The EU and China: Essays on Society, Politics and Economy from the Europe China Research and Advice Network' (editor) (Imperial College Press, London, 2014)
Chief Editor of the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, (Berkshire, New Barrington, USA, 2014 in four volumes)
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Theresa May in China: The UK China Ideas Revolution
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英国伦敦国王学院中国研究所主任凯瑞·布朗表示，今年两会有两点内容他最感兴趣。一是关于如何推进国企改革、金融领域改革等；二是关于中国将如何处理与世界的贸易与投资关系:https://lnkd.in/gJDjxjw
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In the era since China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the country's boom in productivity has brought massive benefits in terms of delivering prosperity and material wealth to the Chinese people, and indeed through GDP growth contributions to the outside world, but it has also posed a problem: How does this economic prowess translate into other forms of influence and power? On the Belt and Road framework from Chine in this month's Beijing Review: https://lnkd.in/dpty4jp
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China's lucky leader: on Xi Jinping in this week's New Statesman:
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Experience
King's College London
Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute
Company NameKing's College London
Dates EmployedOct 2015 – Present Employment Duration2 yrs 6 mos
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
Chatham House
Associate Fellow
Company NameChatham House
Dates EmployedApr 2013 – Present Employment Duration5 yrs
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
University of Sydney
Professor of Chinese Politics and Director, China Studies Centre
Company NameUniversity of Sydney
Dates EmployedAug 2012 – Oct 2015 Employment Duration3 yrs 3 mos
LocationSydney, Australia
Directing the China Studies Centre
Royal Institute of International Affairs
Head, Asia Programme
Company NameRoyal Institute of International Affairs
Dates EmployedJan 2010 – Aug 2012 Employment Duration2 yrs 8 mos
Heading the programme leading work on the Europe China Research and Advice Network
School of Oriental and African Studies
Research Associate
Company NameSchool of Oriental and African Studies
Dates EmployedOct 2009 – Aug 2012 Employment Duration2 yrs 11 mos
Research associate in the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy
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Education
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Degree NameMA Field Of StudyEnglish
Dates attended or expected graduation 1986 – 1989
University of Leeds
University of Leeds
Degree NamePh D Field Of StudyChinese Politics and History
Dates attended or expected graduation 1998 – 2003
University of West London
University of West London
Degree NamePG Dip Chinese Field Of StudyChinese, with Distinction
Dates attended or expected graduation 1993 – 1994
Activities and Societies: Awarded Language Scholarship by the Great Britain China Centre
Skills & Endorsements
International Relations
See 365 endorsements for International Relations99+
Endorsed by Claire Yorke, PhD and 72 others who are highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 3 of Kerry’s colleagues at King's College London
Politics
See 296 endorsements for Politics99+
Endorsed by Tim Beyer Helm and 18 others who are highly skilled at this
Endorsed by 6 of Kerry’s colleagues at Chatham House
Research
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Endorsed by 5 of Kerry’s colleagues at Chatham House
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Recommendations
Received (3)
Given (8)
W. John Hoffmann
W. John Hoffmann
Over 20 years of China strategy and transaction consulting; Co-Founder & Principal at Exceptional Resources Group (XRG)
November 1, 2009, W. John was a client of Kerry’s
I have worked with Kerry on several occassions and can recommend him without reservation as a China analyst and advisor.
Benjamin Schmittzehe
Benjamin Schmittzehe
Chief Executive Asia-focused Management Consultancy
October 28, 2008, Benjamin worked with Kerry but at different companies
Kerry is a very bright individual, with an impressive depth of understanding of Asia and in particular China, and an amazing broad network. Most importantly he is very gregarious and a terrific person to work with.
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Accomplishments
Kerry has 17 publications17
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Publications
What's Wrong with Diplomacy The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping China and the EU in Context: Insights for Business and Investors Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Shanghai 2020: The City's Vision for its Future Contemporary China Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler Ballot Box China China 2020: The Next Decade for the People's Republic of China
Kerry has 2 languages2
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Languages
Chinese English
Kerry has 1 project1
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Project
Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN)
Interests
University of Leeds
University of Leeds
209,087 followers
King's College London
King's College London
137,559 followers
University of West London
University of West London
40,732 followers
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
300,459 followers
Geoffrey Garrett
Geoffrey GarrettGeoffrey Garrett is a LinkedIn Influencer
Dean at The Wharton School
360,613 followers
BUSINESS IN CHINA
BUSINESS IN CHINA
83,977 members
QUOTED: "Brown unravels a tangled web of motivations that influence China's foreign policy thinking."
"the book's timeliness and relevance."
China's World: What Does China Want?
Publishers Weekly.
264.40 (Oct. 2, 2017): p127.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
China's World: What Does China Want?
Kerry Brown. I.B. Tauris, $28 (256p)
ISBN 978-1-784-53809-5
China scholar Brown (CEO, China) completes a trilogy on leadership in modern China with this effort to
parse the foreign policy of the global superpower. Brown unravels a tangled web of motivations that
influence China's foreign policy thinking. Brown discusses the historical animosities that drive China's
strained relations with Japan, carried over from the Second Sino-Japanese War of the 1930s and '40s, and
the forward-thinking bets on needed resources and expanding markets that have led China to form
relationships with African nations guided by a policy that appears to be "amoral and largely driven by selfinterest."
The implications presented for China by several recent international geopolitical wild cards,
including the Brexit vote in June 2016 and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, are explored,
adding to the book's timeliness and relevance. Rarely falling prey to jargon and written in a skilled and
approachable style, the book succeeds in making a complex topic accessible to a broad audience. While
never providing an overarching answer, Brown shows that the response to the question "What does China
want?" may depend on who is asking. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"China's World: What Does China Want?" Publishers Weekly, 2 Oct. 2017, p. 127. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509728466/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f438779e.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A509728466
QUOTED: "Some entries are not entirely appropriate either for novice scholars or advanced researchers, and the weakest entries are poorly edited and repetitive."
3/3/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1520133426231 2/17
Berkshire dictionary of Chinese
biography: v.4
B.T. Vivier
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
54.8 (Apr. 2017): p1150.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
[cc] 54-3551
DS734
CIP
Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography: v.4, ed. by Kerry Brown. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2016.
617p index afp ISBN 9781614729006 cloth, $199.00
This volume supplements the earlier three-volume Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (CH, Oct'14,
52-0603) with a single volume on important figures from 1979 to the present. The well-organized back
matter and structure of entries with Chinese characters and Romanization including tone marks match the
design of the first three volumes. In a wise editorial decision, these 96 new entries bring together people
from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong along with members of the global Chinese diaspora. About half of the
entries cover figures famous for their political contributions; the remainder straddle cultural and business
spheres. One obvious contrast with the first three volumes of this series is the conspicuous presence of
Chinese filmmakers and actors, while the selection of business leaders effectively illustrates China's
economic growth since the late 1970s. The appended "Biographical Directory" identifies an additional 235
individuals. This volume shares the weaknesses of its predecessors, however: some entries are not entirely
appropriate either for novice scholars or advanced researchers, and the weakest entries are poorly edited and
repetitive. Given alternative sources for basic biographical information on featured contemporary figures,
the cost of this additional volume may seem high for libraries not collecting comprehensively in Chinese
studies. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Community college and lower-level undergraduate students.--B.
T. Vivier, University of Pennsylvania
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Vivier, B.T. "Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography: v.4." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic
Libraries, Apr. 2017, p. 1150. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491257362/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d27a5160.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491257362
QUOTED: "recommended [for] informed general readers."
3/3/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1520133426231 3/17
China and the EU in context: insights for
business and investors
S.J. Gabriel
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
52.3 (Nov. 2014): p497.
COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
China and the EU in context: insights for business and investors, ed. by Kerry Brown. Palgrave Macmillan,
2014. 345p bibl index ISBN 9781137352385 cloth, $45.00
52-1515
HF1604
2014-17971 MARC
As China continues its trajectory of growth and its relationship with the EU evolves, it becomes
increasingly important to examine the interactions between the regions. This collection of essays, a product
of the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN) and edited by Brown (Univ. of Sydney,
Australia), explores those crucial relations. Two essays focus on Chinese overseas investment, the first
providing an overview and encouraging the less powerful members of the EU to be more proactive in
attracting Chinese investment, and the second extending the examination to the periphery of the EU. Over
the span of the collection, Brown brings together works of researchers and commentators that do not reach
consensus, reflecting the complexity of the China/EU relationship. For example: while one paper
emphasizes the positive effects of Chinese investments, another considers these mostly natural resource
investments in the EU's periphery to constitute a competitive threat. In another notable essay, the authors
examine China's current five-year plan for reducing environmental pollution and creating a green economy,
and they encourage closer EU/China cooperation in these areas. Brown also includes a number of essays
that address internal politics in China, although this is an area where speculation dominates over analytical
rigor. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Informed general readers.--S. J. Gabriel Mount Holyoke College
Gabriel, S.J.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gabriel, S.J. "China and the EU in context: insights for business and investors." CHOICE: Current Reviews
for Academic Libraries, Nov. 2014, p. 497. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A388824857/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5db7de78.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A388824857
QUOTED: "a chronological balance especially welcome in a general reference work of
this sort."
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Berkshire dictionary of Chinese
biography
B.T. Vivier
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
52.2 (Oct. 2014): p234.
COPYRIGHT 2014 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography, ed. by Kerry Brown. Berkshire Publishing, 2014. 3v bibl index
afp ISBN 9781933782669, $595.00
52-0603
DS734
2013-42493 CIP
This three-volume dictionary gives substantial biographical descriptions for more than 130 historical
figures, spanning earliest recorded history up to 1979. The vast majority of entries cover Chinese history
before the 20th century, yielding a chronological balance especially welcome in a general reference work of
this sort. The length of entries provides enough space for well-rounded overviews of the subjects, but this
comes at the cost of a larger and more varied selection of entries. The scope is thus narrower than would
best serve novice undergraduates, while the entries are not scholarly enough to make this a professional
reference work. In places, substantial overlap is evident in the entries' content; the repetition of accounts of
events and topics would be appropriate to a survey textbook, but is less well-suited to a biographical
context. Each Chinese term and name appears in Romanization, with tone marks and in simplified
characters; this will be a great boon to students learning Chinese. The dictionary's back matter, which
includes bibliographies, tables, and a series of indexes, will be particularly helpful to students new to
Chinese history. A projected fourth volume will cover the years after 1979. Summing Up: Recommended.
** Lower-division undergraduates.--B. T. Vivier, University of Pennsylvania
Vivier, B.T.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Vivier, B.T. "Berkshire dictionary of Chinese biography." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic
Libraries, Oct. 2014, p. 234. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A384341306/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=928a5b0c.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A384341306
QUOTED: "Brown ... has crafted an introduction to contemporary China suitable for the
general reader."
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Brown, Kerry: Contemporary China
J.M. Peek
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
51.4 (Dec. 2013): p718+.
COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Brown, Kerry. Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 216p bibl index ISBN 9781137281586,
$95.00; ISBN 9781137281579 pbk, $35.00
51-2313
DS779
MARC
Brown (Univ. of Sydney, Australia) has crafted an introduction to contemporary China suitable for the
general reader interested in more than a cursory examination of the nation's political, economic, and social
landscape. The work opens with a succinct explanation of the regional and global significance of this
emerging political and economic power. The next two chapters present the basic geopolitical characteristics
of China and an overview of the political history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The following
two chapters lay out the structure and role of the Communist Party and government of China. Nationalism
and rapid economic growth rather than Marxism are seen as the basis of continuing public support for the
Party and the state. Separate chapters are then devoted to the economic, societal, and cultural
transformations that are underway. Embedded in these chapters is an examination of the challenges the
transformations pose for the Chinese Communist Patty and the government. A discussion of China's
relations with key members and regions of the global community precedes the concluding section of the
book. This final section assumes that China will continue down the current path of change but leaves open
the pace and implications of this change. Summing Up: Recommended. ** General readers and lowerdivision
undergraduate students.--J. M. Peek, Glenville State College
Peek, J.M.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Peek, J.M. "Brown, Kerry: Contemporary China." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Dec.
2013, p. 718+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A393972791/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c808c58a. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A393972791
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Hu Jintao; China's silent ruler
Reference & Research Book News.
27.6 (Dec. 2012):
COPYRIGHT 2012 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9789814350020
Hu Jintao; China's silent ruler.
Brown, Kerry.
World Scientific
2012
230 pages
$45.00
Hardcover
DS779
Brown (executive director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney) presents an analysis of the
leadership of Hu Jintao, Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party and President of the People's
Republic during the last decade. Coming to power in 2002, and slated to step down late 2012 to early 13,
his era has been marked by dedication to Party rules, but little is known of his position on policy issues,
says Brown, due to China's political culture of nontransparency. The study covers Hu Jinto's early life,
politics and internal affairs during his tenure, the Chinese economy, China's international face, ideology in
the Hu Jintao era, and his relationship to the Chinese Communist Party. A conclusion offers a provisional
assessment of his time in office. A bibliography and map of China are included.
([c] Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hu Jintao; China's silent ruler." Reference & Research Book News, Dec. 2012. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A312255447/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3989d8c6.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A312255447
QUOTED: "Ballot Box China is clearly among the most engaging, informative works on contemporary Chinese politics."
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Brown, Kerry. Ballot box China:
grassroots democracy in the final major
one-party state
J.D. Gillespie
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
49.4 (Dec. 2011): p762+.
COPYRIGHT 2011 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
49-2314
JS7357
MARC
Brown, Kerry. Ballot box China: grassroots democracy in the final major one-party state. Zed Books, 2011.
184p bibl index ISBN 9781848138193, $125.95; ISBN 9781848138209 pbk, $29.95
Ballot Box China is clearly among the most engaging, informative works on contemporary Chinese politics
and the political reforms initiated or proffered since the death of Mao. The book takes as a focal point the
grassroots experiment launched in the late 1980s--three million candidates in 600,000 villages have won
office in a million elections, many of them multicandidate contests involving independents as well as
Communist Party members. But Brown's slender volume surpasses the focus of its title because of what it
features about other, related post-Mao political reforms and initiatives: courts and the rule of law, civil
society and the broadening array and autonomy of NGOs, possibilities for broadening the scope of popular
elections, and initiatives to deepen democracy inside the ruling party. Brown (Chatham House, London), an
eminent China scholar, enriches his narrative with case studies, interviews, and important documents. He
points to elite fears growing out of the Soviet collapse and out of the histories of the European "color
revolutions"-fears amplifying elite insistence that democratic reform must come with "Chinese
characteristics" and proceed without challenging the Communist Party at the helm of the nation. Ballot Box
China merits a wide readership. Summing Up: Highly recommended. *** Lower-division undergraduates
and above.--J. D. Gillespie, College of Charleston
Gillespie, J.D.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gillespie, J.D. "Brown, Kerry. Ballot box China: grassroots democracy in the final major one-party state."
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Dec. 2011, p. 762+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A274585249/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=31ce1e5b.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A274585249
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China 2020; the next decade for the
People's Republic of China
Reference & Research Book News.
26.6 (Dec. 2011):
COPYRIGHT 2011 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9780857091475
China 2020; the next decade for the People's Republic of China.
Ed. by Kerry Brown.
Chandos Publishing
2011
240 pages
$110.00
Hardcover
Chandos Asian studies series
DS777
Brown (Chatham House, London, UK) presents eight essays exploring the next decade's trajectory of China
from the perspective of Western policy-makers. The contributions, written by British diplomats, lawyers,
and scholars, provide stand-alone examinations of China's internal politics, military, economy, international
relations, legal development, and western regional development plans. Chandos is an imprint of Woodhead
Publishing. Distributed in the US by IPS.
([c]2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"China 2020; the next decade for the People's Republic of China." Reference & Research Book News, Dec.
2011. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A274119883/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1c8175e4. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A274119883
QUOTED: "The entries vary widely in quality. Some are tightly written surveys of their subjects. ... Others are elementary and lack coherence."
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Berkshire encyclopedia of China: modern
and historic views of the world's newest
and oldest global power
B.T. Vivier
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
47.5 (Jan. 2010): p867.
COPYRIGHT 2010 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
47-2360 DS735 2009-7589 CIP
Berkshire encyclopedia of China: modern and historic views of the world's newest and oldest global power,
ed. by Linsun Cheng with Kerry Brown et al. Berkshire Publishing Group, 2009. 5v bibl index afp ISBN
0977015947, $525.00; ISBN 9780977015948, $525.00
This encyclopedia features 800 entries by 296 authors covering contemporary and historical Chinese topics.
The encyclopedia's breadth of coverage and size--2,665 pages in five volumes--distinguish it from
competing reference works. The historical and biographical entries cover the full span of Chinese history,
although the 19th and 20th centuries receive the fullest coverage, and the encyclopedia devotes substantial
coverage to contemporary society, technology, and the environment. Most of the authors hold academic
affiliations, and leading experts have written some of the entries. Entries stretch from brief biographical
synopses to topical essays of several thousand words. The entries vary widely in quality. Some are tightly
written surveys of their subjects (E. N. Anderson's article "Cuisines" is a standout); others are elementary
and lack coherence.
Each entry includes a Chinese translation of its title in both pinyin romanization and simplified Chinese
characters. The romanization includes tone marks, which will be a great boon to students learning Chinese.
The thorough index does an excellent job of connecting references to topics scattered among many entries,
but the entries themselves contain no cross-references and the contents of related entries often overlap.
Illustrations appear on nearly every page, but the images chosen are often of limited relevance to the entries,
and the entry texts almost never reference them. The maps included provide insufficient detail. This
encyclopedia provides rudimentary introductions suitable to undergraduates at the initial stages of research.
The "further readings" included with each entry will be of mixed usefulness; many refer readers only to
Chinese-language sources, which will likely be inaccessible to the target audience. Individual purchasers of
the print set receive a free one-year license to a digital edition, and libraries receive a discount on the
institutional license that is equivalent to the individual discount. Summing Up: Recommended. ** Lowerlevel
undergraduates.--B. T. Vivier, Yale University
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Vivier, B.T. "Berkshire encyclopedia of China: modern and historic views of the world's newest and oldest
global power." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Jan. 2010, p. 867. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A251859237/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=943cf017. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A251859237
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Brown, Kerry. CEO, China: The Rise of
Xi Jinping
Casey Watters
Xpress Reviews.
(Sept. 30, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
[STAR]Brown, Kerry. CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping. I.B.Tauris. Jul. 2016. 288p. notes. bibliog.
index. ISBN 9781784533229. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780857729613. POL SCI Xi Jinping is one of the world's
most powerful people and the strongest Chinese leader in decades. Brown (Chinese studies, King's Coll.
London; The New Emperors) chronicles Xi's life and rise to power while examining the nature of power in
contemporary China. Over the last couple of decades, party leaders have appeared to distance themselves
from Mao and some of the social problems from the early years of the People's Republic of China. President
Xi, however, embraces both the Mao era and reform as the narrative leading to modern China. The party's
"achievement in creating the China the world sees today justifies the cost of epic social movements, famines
and turmoil from 1949 to 1978. These were the years it was learning." In this light, the author examines the
strength of the president and, through efforts like the anticorruption campaign, his vision for the future of
China.
Verdict This in-depth look at power in China and the new president will appeal to those interested in China
or politics.--Casey Watters, Singapore Management Univ.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Watters, Casey. "Brown, Kerry. CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping." Xpress Reviews, 30 Sept. 2016.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A469756618/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6c909941. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A469756618
QUOTED: "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping must be considered essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how China operates today."
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CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping
Willis M. Buhle
Reviewer's Bookwatch.
(July 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping
Kerry Brown
I. B. Tauris
www.ibtauris.com
9781784533229, $28.00, HC, 288pp, www.amazon.com
Synopsis: China has become the powerhouse of the world economy, its incredible boom overseen by the
elite members of the secretive and all-powerful communist party. But since the election of Xi Jinping as
General Secretary, life at the top in China has changed. Under the guise of a corruption crackdown, which
has seen his rivals imprisoned, Xi Jinping has been quietly building one of the most powerful leaderships
modern China has ever seen. In "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping", the noted China expert Kerry Brown
(Professor of Chinese Studies at King's College London and Director of the Lau China Institute) reveals the
hidden story of the rise of the man dubbed the 'Chinese Godfather'. Professor Brown investigates his
relationship with his revolutionary father, who was expelled by Mao during the Cultural Revolution, his
business dealings and allegiances in China's regional power struggles, and his role in the internal battle
raging between the old men of the Deng era and the new super-rich 'princelings'.
Critique: Xi Jinping's China is powerful, aggressive and single-minded and "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi
Jinping" must be considered essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how China operates today
and what to rationally expect from any U.S./China issues today. Exceptionally well written, organized and
presented, "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping" is unreservedly commended as a core addition to
community and academic library Contemporary International Relations collections in general, and Modern
China supplemental studies reading lists in particular. For students and non-specialist readers with an
interest in the subject, it should be noted that "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping" is also available in a
Kindle edition ($15.66).
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Buhle, Willis M. "CEO, China: The Rise of Xi Jinping." Reviewer's Bookwatch, July 2016. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A459635704/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=831b5278. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A459635704
QUOTED: "This is a well-written and fascinating account of the structures and personalities that run China. The strength of this book is that it is very accessible, which one senses is exactly the intention of the author."
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The New Emperors: Power and the
Princelings in China
Anthony Smith
New Zealand International Review.
40.3 (May-June 2015): p31.
COPYRIGHT 2015 New Zealand Institute of International Affairs
Full Text:
THE NEW EMPERORS: Power and the Princelings in China
Author: Kerry Brown
Published by: I.B. Tauris, London, 2014, 244pp, 20 [pounds sterling].
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
This interesting book begins with the wholly remarkable 2011 story of Gu Kailai, the wife of Bo Xilai,
party secretary of Chongqing and then rising political star in China. Gu was convicted of the murder of Neil
Haywood, a British businessman. She would later claim that Haywood had threatened the safety of her
child. Gu Kailai is alleged to have met Haywood in a hotel room, poisoned his drink with cyanide, left him
ailing in his room and instructed the hotel staff not to enter his room. Haywood's body was not discovered
until days later. Bo Xilai also faced his own serious accusations of corruption. Whatever the facts of the
matter are, Bo very quickly found his career was over when it had once looked like he was destined for
higher honours.
It is an instructive thought experiment to consider what the New Zealand public knows about the leadership
of our largest trading partner. People are likely aware of Xi Jinping as China's president, but would likely
struggle to name the premier (Li Keqiang). Would they know how the roles of president and premier
differed? (The premier position is largely a crisis management role, according to Brown.) Would they be
able to appreciate the difference between the Standing Committee and the Politburo? Addressing a lot of
this and more, Kerry Brown, Australian based academic and former British diplomat, offers some intriguing
conclusions on the nature of power in the Chinese system.
When it comes to assessing the Chinese leadership, without access to the primary and secondary sources
that form the usual raw material for historians and political scientists, how does an author cast judgments?
(Domestic attempts in China to comment on Chinese leaders can come badly unstuck. Brown recounts the
story of the commentator Yu Jie, who was put under house arrest and eventually went into exile in the
United States for writing a critical story on a previous Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, and flippantly calling
him 'China's Best Actor'.) A bit like the shadows in a cave, in Plato's famous analogy, a lot has to be
inferred from key events; such as the story of Gu Kailai above.
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Brown looks at one of the prevailing views of Chinese politics, which is to divide the elites into 'factions'.
Both Bo Xilai and Xi Jinping are the children of Communist Party leaders, as are indeed many other
members of the current Chinese elite. These are the so-called 'princelings', a term that now finds itself
coming into a lot of media commentary, and also the title of the book under review. But Brown questions
whether this 'aristocracy' forms a faction in any meaningful sense of that term. Other factions that have been
mooted over the years are 'Shanghai' (often associated with Jiang Zemin), the China Youth League, the oil
faction and graduates of Qinghua University. Brown prefers to view power in China as revolving much
more around particular personality networks, which some Chinese leaders have been more successful in
harnessing than others. Echoing Michel Foucault, Brown notes that 'power is akin to a force or kind of
energy in the world', and the Communist Party is a coalition of interests.
Brown also offers some reflections on how much the backgrounds of Chinese leaders have changed over
time. Setting aside the princeling issue, there has been a noted change in the backgrounds of Standing
Committee and Politburo members. First and second generation leaders were revolutionary and military
figures, who eventually made way for engineers and those who had studied hard sciences. The current (fifth
generation) leadership is the most educated in the history of the People's Republic; it is also a leadership
that has had a lot of exposure to the outside world. (As an aside, Xi Jinping's 'return trip' in 2012 to his host
family in Iowa was a public relations master stroke, if the sort of media attention it garnered in the United
States is any measure.) The Standing Committee members all have quite interesting backgrounds. Li
Keqiang, the first lawyer to make the Standing Committee, is a fan of some of the lesser known works of
the likes of Adam Smith and de Tocqueville. Wang Qishan is the standing committee's first formally trained
historian. Brown also emphasises how determined the more recent generations of Chinese leaders have been
to avoid the 'Maoist utopianism' of the Cultural Revolution.
Brown offers some reflections on how leaders are identified and how they ascend. There is also a
comparison to the Vatican's process that Brown makes in explaining leadership selection. Brown notes the
'multiple ironies' in this given the tensions that exist between the Chinese Communist Party and the Vatican
(which recognises Taiwan). Is it really an irony that two institutions that may have some similarity of
selection process are at odds with each other? We could also reflect on the limitations of such an analogy in
the first place.
This is a well-written and fascinating account of the structures and personalities that run China. The
strength of this book is that it is very accessible, which one senses is exactly the intention of the author.
Dr. Anthony Smith is in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The views expressed here are those
of the author alone and do not represent DPMC or the New Zealand government.
Smith, Anthony
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Smith, Anthony. "The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China." New Zealand International
Review, May-June 2015, p. 31. General OneFile,
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http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A416116555/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=82a7b860.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A416116555
QUOTED: "an impressive and seminal work of outstanding scholarship and a critically important addition to academic library biographical reference collections."
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Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese
Biography
Internet Bookwatch.
(Mar. 2014): p34+.
COPYRIGHT 2014 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography
Kerry Brown, editor-in-chief
Berkshire Publishing Group
120-122 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230-1506
www.berkshirepublishing.com
9781933782669, $595.00, www.amazon.com
"The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography" is a three volume, 1750 page, encyclopedic compendium
comprised of contributions from one hundred internationally recognized experts from nearly a dozen
countries. It is specifically designed to accessibly present the entire span of Chinese history in the form of
succinct biographical descriptions of China's emperors, politicians, poets, writers, artists, scientists,
explorers, and philosophers who have shaped and transformed culture, politics, economics, technology, and
social structure of China over the course of five thousand years. In 135 entries, ranging from 1,000 to 8,000
words the "Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography" ranges from the possibly mythological figures of
ancient China down to the 20th Century Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Deftly
written in-depth essays present a complex historical context, providing readers with a compelling narrative
that weaves abstract concepts and disparate events into a coherent story. Of special note are the crossreferences
between the articles showing the connections between times, places, movements, events, and
individuals. Enhanced with the inclusion of a time line of key events, a pronunciation guide, a bibliography,
lists of rulers and other prominent people, and other supplemental materials for students of Chinese history
and culture, "Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography" is an impressive and seminal work of outstanding
scholarship and a critically important addition to academic library biographical reference collections in
general and Chinese History Studies supplemental reading lists in particular.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography." Internet Bookwatch, Mar. 2014, p. 34+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A365745585/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7b06a11e.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A365745585
QUOTED: "knowledgeably compiled."
"Berkshire Encyclopedia of China is a core reference which is highly recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library International Studies collections."
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Berkshire Encyclopedia of China
Internet Bookwatch.
(Sept. 2009):
COPYRIGHT 2009 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Berkshire Encyclopedia of China
Linsun Cheng, et al.
Berkshire Publishing Group
120-122 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230-1506
www.berkshirepublishing.com
9780977015948, $675.00, www.amazon.com
Knowledgeably compiled and professionally edited by the team of Linsun Cheng, Kerry Brown, Winberg
Chai, and Joan Lebold Cohen, this five-volume, 2800 page encyclopedic compendium of information
features almost one thousand informed and informative articles contributed by outstanding scholars from
China and around the world covering a complete spectrum of issues ranging from the geopolitical role of
China in the modern world, to adoption practices, to the Zhou Dynasty, to it literary, artistic, religious,
financial, and cultural contributions. The "Berkshire Encyclopedia of China" contains both
comprehensively broad and thematic essays, as well as short categorical entries focused on people, events,
organizations, festivals, sports, and all other aspects required for a sound understanding of China and its
people. Of special note is the up to date information on China in the information age of computers, blogs,
and the Internet. Of special note is that each individual article can easily be photocopied making it an ideal
curriculum resource for classroom instruction. The use of English, Chinese characters and Pinyin
transliteration with tone marks further enhances the value of the "Berkshire Encyclopedia of China" for
students of the Chinese language. Presenting an encyclopedic reference from a distinctively Chinese
perspective, profusely enhanced throughout with illustrations, maps, timelines, sidebars, and even
traditional Chinese proverbs, the "Berkshire Encyclopedia of China" is a core reference which is highly
recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library International Studies collections
in general, and Chinese Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists in particular.
The Military Shelf
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Berkshire Encyclopedia of China." Internet Bookwatch, Sept. 2009. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A208132217/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4e4a32c5.
Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A208132217
Francis P Sempa 21 November 2017 Non-Fiction, Reviews
“China’s World” by Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown Kerry Brown
The subtitle of Kerry Brown’s new book, China’s World: What Does China Want?, is a question that is on the minds of the world’s statesmen, policymakers, international relations scholars, global investment advisors, international business leaders and geopolitical thinkers. Given China’s growing global diplomatic, economic, and military footprint, the answer to that question will shape the geopolitics of the rest of the 21st century.
Indeed, China’s foreign policy is already shaping today’s geopolitics. The United States has “pivoted” to Asia largely because of China. In the minds of many strategists, China has replaced the Soviet Union as America’s new peer competitor. China’s aggressive moves in the South and East China Seas, its growing economic ties to the nations of Central Asia, and its growing military (especially naval) power are for some observers reminiscent of Imperial Germany’s challenge to Great Britain in the early years of the 20th century.
Brown, a professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College in London, who previously served in diplomatic posts in China and Indonesia, takes a more nuanced view of China’s foreign policy goals. China, to be sure, wants to play a larger role on the world stage, but that does not mean that it must clash with the United States. Chinese leaders are realists who understand that China would likely not fare well in a military confrontation with the United States. Brown does not endorse the fashionable notion (at least in the US) of a “Thucydides Trap”, whereby a rising power’s challenge to an established power inevitably leads to conflict.
Brown begins the book with a brief survey of China’s history since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), especially its troublesome 19th century. After the 1911 revolution, China fell prey to internal division, external conquest in World War II, and civil war, ultimately resulting in the Communist seizure of power in October 1949. Since that time, Brown writes, “the country has been on a mission to restore itself to the centre of the world stage.” China’s current leaders, in the tradition of Mao Zedong, promote their policies by emphasizing the themes of “national humiliation, struggle, liberation and rebirth.”
The “movers and shakers” of China’s foreign policy include the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Ministry of State Security (MSS), the Central Military Commission (CMC), leading state and non-state companies in China, and top universities, intellectuals, and think tanks. But, Brown notes, “the core driving force of Chinese foreign policy” is President Xi Jinping, who has accumulated more power than any Chinese leader since Mao.
President Xi, according to Brown, has manifested a “strategic, hard-nosed” view of the outside world. Although China’s decision-making process is shrouded in secrecy, Brown believes that Xi has “mapped-out” a geopolitical “world of zones”, with the US in Zone 1, the ASEAN nations and other geographically close countries in Zone 2, the European Union (EU) in Zone 3, and the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa in Zone 4.
In separate chapters, the author examines China’s foreign policy approach in each zone.
China's World: What Does China Want?, Kerry Brown (IB Tauris, November 2017)
China’s World: What Does China Want?, Kerry Brown (IB Tauris, November 2017)
China perceives the United States as both a strategic rival and an economic partner. It feels hemmed-in by US alliances with its close neighbors in East Asia and the Pacific Rim, but Brown believes that in the long run mutual economic dependency will force both great powers to resolve such matters peacefully. The one exception here is Taiwan. Brown sees Taiwan as a possible casus belli between China and the US.
One would have thought that another exception would be North Korea and the continuing efforts to de-nuclearize that regime. But Brown views China’s leverage over North Korea as quite limited, and disagrees with the many US observers who argue that China is playing a Machiavellian game by using its perceived influence with the North Korean regime to gain concessions on other issues from the US and other nations.
It is clear and quite natural that China views East Asia, the Pacific Rim and Central Asia as its sphere of influence. This is a simple matter of geography, and it explains China’s recent moves in the South and East China Seas and the Belt & Road Initiative. That same geography, however, should lessen the anxiety of those who believe that China seeks Asian hegemony. India and Russia should for the foreseeable future ensure the geopolitical pluralism of Asia, whatever China’s intentions are.
There is little doubt, however, that China is becoming a global power. It is, after all, the second largest economy in the world. Brown notes its increased trade with the EU and its growing role in the Middle East and the developing world. China is even competing for influence in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Brown believes that the outside world can influence China’s foreign policy goals and, more important, how it seeks to attain them. He thinks that China is “undecided about where it is heading.” Perhaps.
What is clear is that Napoleon Bonaparte was right. He once referred to China a “sleeping giant,” and prophetically remarked, “when she wakes she will move the world.”
Francis P Sempa is the author of Geopolitics: From the Cold War to the 21st Century and America’s Global Role: Essays and Reviews on National Security, Geopolitics and War. His writings appear in The Diplomat, Joint Force Quarterly, the University Bookman and other publications. He is an attorney and an adjunct professor of political science at Wilkes University.
QUOTED: "As an overview into the binds and struggles of Chinese foreign policy, China’s World is excellent. It is clear, well organized if perhaps slightly too schematic, detailed without being onerous, and sports an impressively broad understanding of a remarkably complex field."
"There might be quibbles about the zoning: Australia should get far more attention, as the leading Western-aligned nation drawn into China’s diplomatic and economic orbit. More could also be said about China’s shambolic soft power efforts, and a number of countries will disagree with China’s designation of some issues as being purely domestic, such as the status of Hong Kong and Taiwan."
What Does China Want?7 min read
November 27, 2017Mike Cormack
Mike Cormack reviews China’s World by Kerry Brown
With Xi Jinping making a bid for global preeminence and the effects of China’s foreign policies seen everywhere from Australia to Iran, the question “What Does China Want?” – the subtitle of Professor Kerry Brown’s new book, China’s World – has never been so pertinent. (The echo of Mark Leonard’s 2008 book What Does China Think? is instructive. The subject has changed from Chinese opinion and feeling to Chinese action and desires).
The very fact that this question is being asked in global capitals might give us pause. A highly-regarded China watcher, Professor Brown reminds us that just forty years ago, China had almost no interaction with the outside world, with very few foreign embassies and even less foreign travel. To go from that to becoming the biggest trading partner of almost every country in the world, with the largest proportion of foreign students in many countries, active in ASEAN and G20 not to mention its own Belt and Road strategy, is a remarkable journey. But the point, which Brown steadily keeps his eye on, is “Where does it go from here?”
Contemplating future actions is best done through assessing previous actions and current behaviors. As gauging China’s governing mindset and administrative methodologies is hard, if not impossible, in China’s highly opaque system, Brown wisely sticks to what China’s leadership does, rather than how it behaves internally. In China’s World, he discusses China’s foreign strategies through a series of zones of decreasing importance. The US is Zone 1; Asia is Zone 2; the European Union is Zone 3; and the rest of the world – divided here into Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and even the polar caps – is Zone 4.
First, however, he discusses the principles of Chinese foreign policy. To the West’s mild – even naïve – surprise, the Chinese government has been disinclined to follow the path laid out for it at the time of its membership of the World Trade Order in 1999. At the time, common wisdom held that engagement and economic development in China would lead to middle class ownership property, demand for say in its disposal and thus voice in government. Globally, too, China was encouraged to become a “responsible stakeholder” in the international system.
However, economic development and President Xi’s anti-corruption campaign have solidified popular support for the Communist Party. It’s thus Chinese citizens who have become “responsible stakeholders” in their own system of government, by which they have become ever wealthier as long as Party control goes unquestioned. China’s responsible role in the international system has not materialized, quite deliberately. That system remains stuck in the post-1945 settlement which saw the US controlling the IMF, NATO and the World Bank. China is unwilling to prop up a system which is now, under President Trump, visibly deteriorating, and in which China’s economic might and huge population share are poorly represented. Hence China’s moves to launch offsetting institutions and policies to rival existing institutions, from the Asian Investment Bank to the Belt and Road Initiative.
In each chapter on China’s foreign policy zones, Brown discusses the various areas important to China. For Zones 1 and 3 (the US and the EU), chapters are organized by theme, such as US insecurity, or mutual dependency and battles over values, markets and knowledge. For Zones 2 and 4 (Asia and the wider world), chapters are organized geographically. Brown shows how territorially, China is hemmed in on every side by US allies; diplomatically, it has few friends and none that reflect well on it (North Korea, of all countries, being closest); economically, its largesse is welcomed, but always with a lurking ambivalence about China’s motives. (China’s tin-eared insistence on using its own workers abroad and the onerous financial demands it places makes this a rational reaction).
Brown shows how the difficulty for China is that even though it talks the language of mutual benefits and “win-win” actions, and even though its efforts to build infrastructure and develop trade benefit many, few regard its motives as altruistic. There are good reasons for this. China likes to portray itself as benevolent despite having been victimized by rapacious foreigners, nonetheless extending the hand of friendship to all. Leadership, or hegemony, develops when there’s a sense of a shared future – of mutual interests being served by common policy. With China, its claim (and probable control) of the entirety of the South China Sea and its saber-rattling rhetoric towards India, Japan, Vietnam and even Australia and the US make it seem aggressively expansionist, a country whose talk of a new world order seems in order satisfy its own desires. Little wonder that few neighbors are enthused.
Yet China cannot be ignored, as its international presence becomes ever stronger. Its Belt and Road strategy is building infrastructure from Laos to Kazakhstan. Its students form the plurality of foreign students in many counties. Its imports fuel the economies of resource exporters from Australia to Venezuela. But more importantly, China has an urgent desire to ascend the technological chain, from manufacturing hub to expertise exporter. The involvement of the state-owned company China General Nuclear in constructing the British Hinkley Point nuclear power station may well be a turning point, where economic realities first overturned security anxieties.
But China isn’t randomly thrusting itself wherever it can. As Brown points out, China has smartly avoided unprofitable areas, such as the internecine Middle East, and it has little policy for Latin America beyond boilerplate formulations. The increase in Chinese influence is thus well chosen, picking up the slack where it can; there is never any sense of over-reach. This incrementalist expansion of reach and stature thus feels constantly backed by genuine hard power.
In its rise, China sees itself as merely returning to preeminence rather than overturning the natural order. This inevitably will lead to conflict with the leaders of the current order. Xi Jinping’s calls for “mutual respect” during Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing belie the truth that China’s assertions of equivalence and complementarity mask Beijing’s efforts to run the US out of what it considers its sphere of influence. But this isn’t uniquely Chinese perfidy. It is what great powers do, or try to do.
As an overview into the binds and struggles of Chinese foreign policy, China’s World is excellent. It is clear, well organized if perhaps slightly too schematic, detailed without being onerous, and sports an impressively broad understanding of a remarkably complex field. There might be quibbles about the zoning: Australia should get far more attention, as the leading Western-aligned nation drawn into China’s diplomatic and economic orbit. More could also be said about China’s shambolic soft power efforts, and a number of countries will disagree with China’s designation of some issues as being purely domestic, such as the status of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
This last point is crucial. When concluding the book, Brown suggests that if China becomes “a key shaper” of this century in ways that are “harmonious, consensual and supported by the rest of the world”, this would be a true victory for humanity. Perhaps so. But as China’s power surge suggests, in the current window afforded by Western foolishness and decline, it is less inclined to consider niceties. China’s 1985 treaty with the UK on Hong Kong has been contemptuously downgraded with Britain powerless to countermand Chinese actions, giving a clear indication of how Zhongnanhai behaves when unimpeded. The reality is that strength and power will continue to dictate international relations, as it always has. The rest of the world is on notice that China cannot, and will not, be ignored. ∎
Kerry Brown, China’s World: What Does China Want? (I.B. Tauris, November 2017)
Book Review: The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China by Kerry Brown
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In The New Emperors, Kerry Brown covers key figures in China’s political system in an informed and engaging style. Stephen Minas recommends this book for students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business.
The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China. Kerry Brown. IB Tauris. 2014.
Find this book: amazon-logo
How does power work in today’s China? Why does Xi Jinping occupy the Chinese Communist Party’s highest office while Bo Xilai, whose ‘Chongqing model’ of development once graced the covers of international magazines, sits in prison? These are the questions at the heart of The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China, a close study of the careers of China’s most powerful men by Kerry Brown.
Brown is director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and was previously a UK diplomat in China. He is an informed and engaging expert with admirable access to Beijing policy circles.
Brown’s argument is that neither factions nor ‘princeling’ status (attributed to both Xi and Bo) explain the ‘fluidity and energy of relationships and how they are associated with different types of power’ in the Party. Finding ‘surprising’ diversity in the seven men of China’s ruling Politburo standing committee, Brown contends that the effective use of broader, less cohesive networks better explains their success. Ideology still plays an important role in this networking; ‘business and money’ are ever more important.
The first chapter examines the complex constellation of networks through which power is gained. The second chapter examines the process by which China’s current leaders were chosen on the ‘long and winding road’ to the 2012 party congress – maneuverings too complex to summarise here (suffice to say that Hu Jintao’s explanation to a curious child that he himself became China’s leader because ‘the people in the whole country elected me’ does not tell the full story). Chapter three examines the rise to power of current Party secretary Xi Jinping, and chapter four does the same with respect to premier Li Keqiang. Chapter five takes briefer looks at the other members of the standing committee. The final chapter examines the role of ideology in the careers of the leaders and in China’s power structure. Brown has relied primarily on Chinese language sources.
With China’s ‘high-level cadres’ – those holding ministerial rank and above – numbering just over two and a half thousand in 1998, the contest for influence and position within this group of people ‘smaller than most villages in Europe’ has attracted intense scrutiny and competing theories. In his chapter on ‘Power and the Politburo’, Brown argues that there is ‘more competition in the power market in China now that Maoist centralisation is gone’. This contest for power is characterised by a ‘liquidity of relations in modern China’, which Brown likens to ‘liquidity of capital in a market’. In making this argument, Brown builds on Michel Foucault’s conception of power as operating ‘more like a kind of energy, or a field of forces’, rather than being ‘fixed and ossified’. In such a system, the most successful figures are the ones with the broadest networks. Therefore, much political and policy work is actually concerned with strengthening or defending networks.
Brown’s primary case study for his conception of China’s power dynamics is Xi Jinping, who was elevated to Party secretary in 2012. Brown attributes his ultimate success to a number of factors, including the legacy of his father, Xi Zhongxun, who escaped association with extreme Leftism during the Cultural Revolution and was involved in the early successes of economic ‘reform and opening’. Xi’s military background is another factor. In sum, according to Brown, Xi is more extensively networked than his peers, has avoided entrenched alliances that could ‘pigeonhole’ him and has a shallow ‘negative network’ of ill-wishers. The contrast here is with Bo Xilai.
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Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the President of the People’s Republic of China, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Credit: APEC 2013 CC BY 2.0
In the final chapter, on the role of ideology in elite politics, Brown adds a second analytical lens, that of ‘political purpose’, to his original narrative on networks. Brown contends that political theory remains an important field of contest in the intra-Party power game. This is partly explained by the Party’s culture of dialectic, with ‘either-or’ terms of debate enduring from Mao’s discourse on ‘contradictions’ to the present (hence, Wen Jiabao’s ‘Four Uns’ versus Wu Bangguo’s ‘Five No’s’). Brown detects in Xi Jinping’s writings and speeches a preoccupation with ‘broadly abstract, almost philosophical issues’. Xi has said that the Party will not succeed without theory and has emphasised the ‘moral responsibility’ of cadres.
Brown’s argument counters the popular view that while the Party remains organizationally Leninist, it has surrendered on ideology.Brown’s account accords with Kevin Rudd’s observation that Xi is a ‘party idealist’ who wants to ‘rehabilitate’ the Party as a ‘credible political institution – not just the deliverer of economic growth; nor simply the enforcer of public order’. In other words, to add more substance to the ‘social compact’ between rulers and ruled.
There is always a degree of risk in venturing to explain opaque systems (Brown quotes a 2011 ‘provisional eulogy’ for Jiang Zemin from Time which praised the former – but still very much alive and influential – leader for knowing ‘when to let go’). As Dai Qing, the writer, has commented, ‘everything we say about Xi Jinping is prefaced with “I guess” or “He might be”’. Such prefaces are no bad thing. For example, Brown rightly cautions that Xi’s ‘more approachable style and direct mode of expression … may mean very little’. It could just mean acceptance that the jargon-filled rhetoric associated with Hu Jintao was not an effective way of communicating. (As early as 2005, propaganda official Liu Yunshan complained that ‘many cadres, and particularly young ones, are not willing to watch our news reports, nor to read out [sic] theoretical articles, nor listen to our speeches’.)
So is Xi in fact China’s ‘new emperor’? (A title that would be about as welcome as being labeled ‘China’s Gorbachev’.) There is an emerging consensus that Xi is China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping but, as Brown illustrates, this preeminence is contingent on the networks that enabled the Party secretary to get to where he is. Professor Zheng Yongnian’s observation, quoted by Brown, that the Party itself has become a kind of ‘organisational emperor’ probably gets closer to the truth.
I recommend this book for students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business. The media regularly uses shorthand descriptions like ‘princelings’ and ‘once-in-a-decade leadership transition’ when reporting on Beijing. This shorthand is necessary but can mislead. This book goes a long way toward explaining the complexity that it conceals. Brown describes having observed a ‘fierce, albeit polite’ debate among Chinese academics and officials over the voting system that would pick the new leaders. He reports how, at the Beidaihe summit ahead of the leadership transition, China’s ‘grand old former leaders’, long retired from their official positions, trumped decisions made lower down in the official Party hierarchy. The New Emperors effectively demonstrates how much is still to play for behind the edifice of China’s ‘institutionalized transition of power’.
Stephen Minas is a research associate with the Foreign Policy Centre, London and an honorary fellow of the Centre for International Mental Health, University of Melbourne. Stephen was previously an adviser in the Office of the Premier of the Australian state of Victoria and has also worked as a journalist and as a staffer for members of the Australian Parliament. Stephen holds an MSc in International Relations from the LSE, where he studied on a Graduate Merit Award, and Honours degrees in Law and History from the University of Melbourne. He tweets @StephenMinas. Read more reviews by Stephen.
QUOTED: "What makes Mr. Brown's book unique is the attention he directs toward the individuals at the top of the party structure. ... Mr. Brown struggles gamely to flesh out even our knowledge of Zhang Gaoli, the Standing Committee member from the most modest background."
"Mr. Brown makes the most of every bit of personal information in circulation and has closely read official party documents."
Book Review: 'The New Emperors' by Kerry Brown
Communist China has never been run by a direct descendant of a previous top leader. That can't be said of either Korea—or the U.S.
By Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Sept. 11, 2014 7:43 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
Though China's Communist Party once talked of women "holding up half the sky," the Standing Committee—the subgroup of the Politburo that really runs the country—has always been an all-male preserve. Each of the seven current members lives a largely sequestered existence, and has a rather colorless personal style. In group photographs of the power holders, you have to look hard for signs of individuality, such as one daringly sporting a tie a different shade than those of the other six.
So why exactly did President Xi Jinping, Premiere Li Keqiang and five others—rather than some other set of party officials—emerge in 2012 as the members of the new Standing Committee? The answer, Kerry Brown claims in "The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China," lies in their enmeshment in unusually wide arrays of societal networks. By tracing some of these, the author creates something of a map of power within contemporary China.
The party is "like a partly family-run business," Mr. Brown says. In some cases it actually is birth or marriage that gains an individual a spot in an influential network. In others, however, power comes via an official posting, a tie to an institution, such as Tsinghua University, the Beijing school sometimes called China's MIT, where a disproportionate number of recent elite figures matriculated. Or it can come through the patronage of a former leader, such as Jiang Zemin or Hu Jintao. Xi Jinping rose highest, in Mr. Brown's view, because his set of meaningful connections was densest. It helped that he had a father with strong revolutionary credentials and a wife with military ties. But it also mattered that he had Mr. Jiang's backing, that he had held posts that made him known in provincial circles, and that he had attended Tsinghua.
The best recent books about elite politics in China, such as Richard McGregor's "The Party" (2010) and Rowan Callick's "Party Time" (2013), tend to eschew biographical approaches. Instead, they seek to explain how the Communist Party has survived by retaining some habits from its youth (tightly controlling formal power and censoring the press) while jettisoning others (going from persecuting to co-opting capitalists, from vilifying Confucius to venerating his teaching). What makes Mr. Brown's book unique is the attention he directs toward the individuals at the top of the party structure.
Book Review: 'The New Emperors' by Kerry Brown
THE NEW EMPERORS
By Kerry Brown
(I.B. Tauris, 244 pages, $28)
Some leaders had fathers who became caught up in the revolutionary dramas of the pre-1949 and Mao eras. One figure, Yu Zhengsheng, has a brother who defected to the West. And Mr. Brown struggles gamely to flesh out even our knowledge of Zhang Gaoli, the Standing Committee member from the most modest background. Nicknamed "master of GDP," Mr. Zhang is best known simply for delivering "high levels of growth" in each of a series of bureaucratic postings. Mr. Zhang's other strength, Mr. Brown claims, was the "naked pragmatism" that inspired him, when based in Shenzhen, to be enormously "solicitous" to former high-level figures spending their retirements there. This brought him into the circles of patronage that included those people's sons, one of whom was Xi Jinping.
Mr. Brown makes the most of every bit of personal information in circulation and has closely read official party documents. He concludes that it's misleading to view Mr. Xi's rise in terms of a power struggle between two clearly defined camps, whether framed in "neo-Maoist" vs. "reformer" or "princeling" vs. "non-princeling."
Mr. Brown rightly stresses the limits as well as value of referring to influential Chinese as "princelings," and despite his book's clichéd title seems aware that when writing about modern China, imperial metaphors can obscure more than they illuminate. Yes, some things about China evoke the old dynastic system. But it's worth remembering that the PRC has never been run by the direct descendant of a previous top leader—something that can't be said of the leadership of North and South Korea, Taiwan (where Chiang Kai-shek's son succeeded him in 1975) or indeed the United States. Mr. Brown stresses that, while patronage and connections work in distinctive ways in China, they play central roles in many political systems. He also works against a view of China as exotic by nodding to parallels with other settings, such as similarities between Beijing's and the Vatican's procedures for handling issues of succession.
I admit I would have liked to see the author go further with such analysis. Mr. Xi's sometimes bombastic nationalistic rhetoric and pragmatic approach to economics brings to mind the current leaders of two neighboring countries, Japan and Russia. Even more evocative are parallels between Mr. Xi and Chiang Kai-shek, who before being forced into exile on Taiwan in 1949 governed the mainland as head of the Nationalist Party. Both Chiang and Mr. Xi can be described as authoritarian nationalists who claimed that revolutionary ideals and traditional Confucian values were complementary. Like Mr. Xi, Chiang ran a tightly disciplined party that viewed all competing organizations as dangerous, and was helped to his position via a mix of family ties and links to powerful networks, including military ones.
There's a deep irony here: In the 1940s, one reason the Communists triumphed over the Nationalists was because the latter came to be seen as a corrupt family-run regime, dominated by a tightly interconnected group of people who talked about the welfare of the nation, yet seemed most concerned with protecting their positions and enriching their relatives. This is precisely the view of today's China that Mr. Xi and the six others on the Standing Committee fear will gain even greater traction than it already has.
Mr. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at UC Irvine and author of "China in the 21st Century."
QUOTED: "He is an informed and engaging expert with admirable access to Beijing policy circles."
"students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business. The media regularly uses shorthand descriptions like ‘princelings’ and ‘once-in-a-decade leadership transition’ when reporting on Beijing. This shorthand is necessary but can mislead. This book goes a long way toward explaining the complexity that it conceals."
"The New Emperors effectively demonstrates how much is still to play for behind the edifice of China’s ‘institutionalized transition of power’."
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Book Review: The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China by Kerry Brown
In The New Emperors, Kerry Brown covers key figures in China’s political system in an informed and engaging style. Stephen Minas recommends this book for students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business.
The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China. Kerry Brown. IB Tauris. 2014.
Find this book: amazon-logo
How does power work in today’s China? Why does Xi Jinping occupy the Chinese Communist Party’s highest office while Bo Xilai, whose ‘Chongqing model’ of development once graced the covers of international magazines, sits in prison? These are the questions at the heart of The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China, a close study of the careers of China’s most powerful men by Kerry Brown.
Brown is director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and was previously a UK diplomat in China. He is an informed and engaging expert with admirable access to Beijing policy circles.
Brown’s argument is that neither factions nor ‘princeling’ status (attributed to both Xi and Bo) explain the ‘fluidity and energy of relationships and how they are associated with different types of power’ in the Party. Finding ‘surprising’ diversity in the seven men of China’s ruling Politburo standing committee, Brown contends that the effective use of broader, less cohesive networks better explains their success. Ideology still plays an important role in this networking; ‘business and money’ are ever more important.
The first chapter examines the complex constellation of networks through which power is gained. The second chapter examines the process by which China’s current leaders were chosen on the ‘long and winding road’ to the 2012 party congress – maneuverings too complex to summarise here (suffice to say that Hu Jintao’s explanation to a curious child that he himself became China’s leader because ‘the people in the whole country elected me’ does not tell the full story). Chapter three examines the rise to power of current Party secretary Xi Jinping, and chapter four does the same with respect to premier Li Keqiang. Chapter five takes briefer looks at the other members of the standing committee. The final chapter examines the role of ideology in the careers of the leaders and in China’s power structure. Brown has relied primarily on Chinese language sources.
With China’s ‘high-level cadres’ – those holding ministerial rank and above – numbering just over two and a half thousand in 1998, the contest for influence and position within this group of people ‘smaller than most villages in Europe’ has attracted intense scrutiny and competing theories. In his chapter on ‘Power and the Politburo’, Brown argues that there is ‘more competition in the power market in China now that Maoist centralisation is gone’. This contest for power is characterised by a ‘liquidity of relations in modern China’, which Brown likens to ‘liquidity of capital in a market’. In making this argument, Brown builds on Michel Foucault’s conception of power as operating ‘more like a kind of energy, or a field of forces’, rather than being ‘fixed and ossified’. In such a system, the most successful figures are the ones with the broadest networks. Therefore, much political and policy work is actually concerned with strengthening or defending networks.
Brown’s primary case study for his conception of China’s power dynamics is Xi Jinping, who was elevated to Party secretary in 2012. Brown attributes his ultimate success to a number of factors, including the legacy of his father, Xi Zhongxun, who escaped association with extreme Leftism during the Cultural Revolution and was involved in the early successes of economic ‘reform and opening’. Xi’s military background is another factor. In sum, according to Brown, Xi is more extensively networked than his peers, has avoided entrenched alliances that could ‘pigeonhole’ him and has a shallow ‘negative network’ of ill-wishers. The contrast here is with Bo Xilai.
In the final chapter, on the role of ideology in elite politics, Brown adds a second analytical lens, that of ‘political purpose’, to his original narrative on networks. Brown contends that political theory remains an important field of contest in the intra-Party power game. This is partly explained by the Party’s culture of dialectic, with ‘either-or’ terms of debate enduring from Mao’s discourse on ‘contradictions’ to the present (hence, Wen Jiabao’s ‘Four Uns’ versus Wu Bangguo’s ‘Five No’s’). Brown detects in Xi Jinping’s writings and speeches a preoccupation with ‘broadly abstract, almost philosophical issues’. Xi has said that the Party will not succeed without theory and has emphasised the ‘moral responsibility’ of cadres.
Brown’s argument counters the popular view that while the Party remains organizationally Leninist, it has surrendered on ideology.Brown’s account accords with Kevin Rudd’s observation that Xi is a ‘party idealist’ who wants to ‘rehabilitate’ the Party as a ‘credible political institution – not just the deliverer of economic growth; nor simply the enforcer of public order’. In other words, to add more substance to the ‘social compact’ between rulers and ruled.
There is always a degree of risk in venturing to explain opaque systems (Brown quotes a 2011 ‘provisional eulogy’ for Jiang Zemin from Time which praised the former – but still very much alive and influential – leader for knowing ‘when to let go’). As Dai Qing, the writer, has commented, ‘everything we say about Xi Jinping is prefaced with “I guess” or “He might be”’. Such prefaces are no bad thing. For example, Brown rightly cautions that Xi’s ‘more approachable style and direct mode of expression … may mean very little’. It could just mean acceptance that the jargon-filled rhetoric associated with Hu Jintao was not an effective way of communicating. (As early as 2005, propaganda official Liu Yunshan complained that ‘many cadres, and particularly young ones, are not willing to watch our news reports, nor to read out [sic] theoretical articles, nor listen to our speeches’.)
So is Xi in fact China’s ‘new emperor’? (A title that would be about as welcome as being labeled ‘China’s Gorbachev’.) There is an emerging consensus that Xi is China’s most powerful leader since Deng Xiaoping but, as Brown illustrates, this preeminence is contingent on the networks that enabled the Party secretary to get to where he is. Professor Zheng Yongnian’s observation, quoted by Brown, that the Party itself has become a kind of ‘organisational emperor’ probably gets closer to the truth.
I recommend this book for students of Chinese politics and anyone who deals regularly with Chinese government or business. The media regularly uses shorthand descriptions like ‘princelings’ and ‘once-in-a-decade leadership transition’ when reporting on Beijing. This shorthand is necessary but can mislead. This book goes a long way toward explaining the complexity that it conceals. Brown describes having observed a ‘fierce, albeit polite’ debate among Chinese academics and officials over the voting system that would pick the new leaders. He reports how, at the Beidaihe summit ahead of the leadership transition, China’s ‘grand old former leaders’, long retired from their official positions, trumped decisions made lower down in the official Party hierarchy. The New Emperors effectively demonstrates how much is still to play for behind the edifice of China’s ‘institutionalized transition of power’.
Stephen Minas is a research associate with the Foreign Policy Centre, London and an honorary fellow of the Centre for International Mental Health, University of Melbourne. Stephen was previously an adviser in the Office of the Premier of the Australian state of Victoria and has also worked as a journalist and as a staffer for members of the Australian Parliament. Stephen holds an MSc in International Relations from the LSE, where he studied on a Graduate Merit Award, and Honours degrees in Law and History from the University of Melbourne. He tweets @StephenMinas. Read more reviews by Stephen.
QUOTED: "In The New Emperors, Kerry Brown, an expert China-watcher, provides a valuable overview of these seven extraordinarily powerful men."
The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China by Kerry Brown, review: 'scrupulous and valuable'
An impressive, eye-opening study of the seven men who rule China
5 out of 5 stars
Will the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee seek stability or take political risks?
Will the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee seek stability or take political risks? Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Mark Ralston
By Julia Lovell9:00AM BST 12 Jul 2014
Back in the 19th century, as frictions between China and Western colonialists grew, Europeans and Americans generated the racist stereotype of the “inscrutable Chinese”, whose calculations and considerations lay far beyond the ken of “rational” Westerners. Well into the third millennium – an unprecedentedly networked era that ought to bring increasing opportunities for contact, study and understanding – the mutual incomprehension of the 19th century still seems to plague Sino-Western relations.
In November 2012, the Chinese Communist Party appointed seven leaders – a new Politburo Standing Committee – to oversee the country’s next decade, a political transition comparable in importance to an American presidential election. Yet in countries including Britain, understanding of this shift remains troublingly limited. In The New Emperors, Kerry Brown, an expert China-watcher, provides a valuable overview of these seven extraordinarily powerful men.
The contemporary workings of Chinese politics are, admittedly, hard to fathom. China’s ruling elites deliberately live isolated lives. After becoming a Politburo member, one analyst claimed, a Chinese leader “will probably never again eat in a restaurant, stay in a hotel, fly in a plane or even drive on a road at the same time as any member of the public”. Even low-ranking, local Party bosses have, Brown writes, “a small world to move in, largely policed by security agents and servants”.
READ: Tiananmen Where?: China's collective amnesia about the 1989 massacre
The process by which the seven members of the new standing committee were chosen is unclear. In theory, it was done by intraparty democracy. Yet, in practice, secret ballots cast by party members and their delegates played only a partial role. The real negotiations for the make-up of the Politburo took place in 2012 at the Party’s favourite seaside resort, Beidaihe in the north east, where Party elites spent their holidays in huddled consultations.
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Undaunted by these obstacles to understanding, Brown sets out what we can know about the men – Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Qishan, Yu Zhengsheng, Zhang Gaoli, Zhang Dejiang and Liu Yunshan – in charge of China. The non-Chinese media has spilt much ink on the importance of “princelings” in China today: a cohort of sexagenarians, currently at the apogee of their political careers, who owe much of their influence to having parents from the founding generation of Communist revolutionaries. Both Xi Jinping and Yu Zhengsheng seem to fall into this category.
Yet, Brown argues, parsing the loyalties and beliefs of China’s super-elite is not so easy. Anyone who has spent their career in the interconnected world of Chinese politics will have links to an array of interests: to retired Politburo members, the military and institutions such as Beijing’s top universities.
Brown is scrupulous to acknowledge the skill set of the new Politburo. They are all deft crisis managers and effective communicators (positively Obama-esque in comparison with the stony Hu Jintao, who retired from the presidency in 2012).
Political reform has stagnated in China over the past decade. Brown describes the approach of Hu Jintao (who prized “stability” above all) as “do nothing, stop everything”. As a result, by 2012 China was spending $5 billion a year more on domestic security than on external defence. The country’s new generation of leaders does not have the luxury of sitting on the problem as Hu did. A biographer of Jiang Zemin, president through much of the Nineties, has argued that the “the risks of not reforming are now higher than the risks of reforming”.
But it’s far from clear how politically innovative China’s new leaders will prove. Periodically throughout his career (and at his first press conference as President), Xi Jinping has criticised corruption within the Party. Yet, Brown writes, “the brute reality is that for all Xi’s talk, the structural issue of corruption locally had not changed”. The Party currently faces a massive legitimacy crisis due to the way in which relatives of leaders have made fortunes over the past three decades. The recent New York Times investigation into the vast wealth of the family of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao (almost £1.7 billion) has exposed the scale of the issue; members of Xi’s extended family have also acquired assets worth millions.
Li Keqiang, Xi’s second-in-command and the first lawyer to serve on the Politburo, earned his spurs assiduously engineering a cover-up of an Aids epidemic in east-central China, for which local government was significantly responsible. Liu Yunshan has so far distinguished himself as a heavy-handed propaganda tsar. All, unsurprisingly, are committed to guaranteeing the unchallenged leadership of the Communist Party.
Despite the headlines trumpeting China’s unstoppable rise to superpower status, and the state propaganda about the country’s “5,000 years” of cohesive history, the People’s Republic remains an insecure place. The new leadership is still acutely conscious of the country’s traumatic experiences between 1840 and 1990 when – challenged by the West and then Japan – it lurched between foreign invasion and civil war. For the foreseeable future, China’s new leaders seem likely to prioritise maintenance of hard-won stability over political risk-taking.
The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China by Kerry Brown
I B Tauris, 240pp, Telegraph offer price: £19 + £1.95p & p (RRP £20). Call 0844 871 1515 or see books.telegraph.co.uk
QUOTED: "Sometimes, apparently worried about riling Beijing, Brown meekly backpedals and questions his right as an outsider to judge. Still, Carnival China hits home, persuasively making the case that, at its core, China remains an Orwellian state that will not brook any dissent."
Book review: Carnival China, by Kerry Brown
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 15 June, 2014, 11:52am
UPDATED : Sunday, 15 June, 2014, 11:52am
David Wilson
David Wilson
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Carnival China: China in the Era of Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping
by Kerry Brown
Imperial College Press
4.5 stars
David Wilson
A 2009 public survey by the state-owned magazine Xiaokang revealed that local government officials were less trusted than prostitutes, writes China wonk Kerry Brown.
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In this provocative string of essays, originally posted on the Open Democracy website between 2006 and 2013, Brown scrutinises the corruption that dogged officialdom during the "muddling through" age of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.
Disgraced former "princeling" Bo Xilai, whom Wen apparently loathed, comes in for sharp scrutiny but Brown also addresses themes ranging from the fallout over the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to activist Liu Xiaobo to the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Brown's most telling insight may be the degree of division belying the Communist Party's grandmaster-like machinations.
"I was startled by how many village-level areas were lawless, ruled by different groups and largely out of the reach of the central authorities," writes Brown, head of Sydney University's China Studies Centre, citing quasi-mafia groups in the northeast. In the central Hunan, Henan and Hebei provinces, he sees conflict between party operatives and increasingly potent clans.
His take on Chinese society until the March 2013 accession of President Xi Jinping is punchy but tender, even amusing. For him, China is a dark and complex carnival in which every citizen performs. "The most remarkable moments were when … common ground was found through humour and a shared sense of the rich absurdity of daily life in Carnival China - officials who had a glint in their eye as they blasted out wonderful stretches of Hu-style empty rhetoric, roaring with … laughter when congratulated on their verbal ability."
The irony evaporates when Brown addresses the plight of lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was viciously tortured for his human rights work. Gao remains in jail - proof that, despite its pride and the wealth that feeds its monster ego, China has a savage streak that reflects the party's original violent rise.
The party has done its worst in Tibet, Brown notes, adding that the Buddhist kingdom is just one trouble spot among many. Even Yunnan is fraught, like Inner Mongolia and the northwestern province of Xinjiang, where the party has a dire record. In an eye-opening passage, Brown documents how party henchmen smashed Xinjiang mosques and coerced imams into eating pork to indicate faith in Maoism, not Islam.
Meanwhile, the environment has been hammered to an extent that smacks of insanity. Thanks to industrialisation, it is close to annihilation, he writes.
Sometimes, apparently worried about riling Beijing, Brown meekly backpedals and questions his right as an outsider to judge.
Still, Carnival China hits home, persuasively making the case that, at its core, China remains an Orwellian state that will not brook any dissent.