An annual publication from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), the China Yearbook is a round-up of events and issues of significance that occurred in China during the past year and covers important developments in the domestic and foreign policy spheres.
The fourth of the series, the 2014 Yearbook comprises twenty-three chapters spanning diverse yet important events that have occurred with regard to China in the year 2014. The chapters are arranged in five sections.
An investigation into the prospects for including political talks in the cross-strait dialogue enables a better assessment of cross-strait relations. China’s push for political talks and Taiwan’s resistance to them imply that their political positions on the fundamental issues of sovereignty and ‘living space’ for Taiwan remain unchanged. Considering Taiwan’s complex domestic political scenario, which is largely against unification with Mainland China, the likelihood of Taiwan agreeing to political talks for unification is remote.
Strengthening people-to-people relations is the best way forward for enhancing India-Taiwan relations. The normalisation in the Cross-Strait relations provides an opportunity for India and Taiwan to further deepen their functional ties.In keeping with these ideas, this monograph presents a broad roadmap by retelling the forgotten stories of the past and providing a base for discussing the present and the future.
Scholars studying China are quite familiar with themes like national humiliation, nationalism as a new source of regime legitimacy vis-à-vis communism, and China’s anti-US and anti-Japan polemic. Zheng Wang’s book Never Forget National Humiliation captures the interrelated nature of these themes in a skilful manner and is a valuable addition to the study of Chinese nationalism.
Although the nature of warfare has changed beyond recognition since the 1920s and 1930s when Chairman Mao Zedong penned his main military writings, his military thoughts are still a point of reference for any discussion on military thinking in modern China. Developments in warfare have superseded Mao’s operational principles and tactics visualised in his three-stage warfare; however, his philosophical and political understanding of war has value that transcends time and space.
Learning by Doing: The PLA Trains at Home and Abroad analyses the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) training exercises and its joint international drills after the year 2000. Drawing on assorted media reports and other sources, the book has created a much-needed structured narrative on the subject. Media coverage, such as that by PLA Daily (China Military Online), has drawn attention to technological developments in PLA’s training exercises, their expanded time, and geographical span over the past decade. The PLA’s joint international drills have also been widely covered.
Rule of Law means displacing the CCP from its paramount position. Historical evolution suggests that the new system has to be either liberal democracy or a system with a Chinese nomenclature but with a liberal essence.
Xi Jinping’s speeches and actions have elaborated upon three major themes: upholding the market economy, adopting measures against ‘formalism and bureaucracy’, and endorsing the Rule of Law.
Significance of Japan-Taiwan Fishery Pact
Recently concluded Japan-Taiwan Fishery Pact warrants careful monitoring of the Cross-Strait relations as the pact displeases China.