Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Anno accademico 2024/2025

While introducing new knowledge and concepts aimed at encouraging critical analysis and problematisation of the socioeconomic development of contemporary China, key historical, social and cultural dynamics will also be reviewed, in order to ensure full participation and understanding by all students.
Therefore, no specific prerequisites are required.

Sommario insegnamento

• Obiettivi formativi
• Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi
• Programma
• Modalità di insegnamento
• Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento
• Attività di supporto
• Testi consigliati e bibliografia
• Note
• Strumenti didattici
• Scheda del corso

Obiettivi formativi

The Economy and Society in Contemporary China course builds on other courses within the China & Global Studies concentration offered by the Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze Internazionali, with the aim of providing disciplinary knowledge and skills for the study of China's political, social and economic development.

Risultati dell'apprendimento attesi

The course will examine how Chinese leaders coordinate domestic and international considerations in foreign affairs, a priority they consistently emphasize today. It aims to provide students with insights into China’s external behavior and an analytical understanding of the dynamics behind its foreign policy decision-making.

Programma

An economically stronger and more confident China is exerting unprecedented influence on global affairs through its proactive diplomacy. To understand the sources of China’s external behavior, it is essential to predict and respond to its international actions. While this is an appealing goal, the very nature and structure of Chinese society and government make it a difficult, if not impossible, task. The saying that foreign policy-making is like a "black box" is particularly accurate in the Chinese context.

Aiming to open this black box, this course seeks to bridge foreign policy decision-making theories with the practice of Chinese foreign policy-making. It explores the major factors that shape China’s foreign policy and how they exert their influence.

These factors include: the impact of historical legacies, the personality and decision-making style of paramount leaders, the evolving foreign policy-making structure and shifting bureaucratic processes, the fluid nature of domestic politics, including the role of the military, nationalism, and public opinion. The course will examine how Chinese leaders coordinate domestic and international considerations in foreign affairs, a priority they consistently emphasize today. It aims to provide students with insights into China’s external behavior and an analytical understanding of the dynamics behind its foreign policy decision-making.

Modalità di insegnamento

Lectures will be held in English. 

Each of the Lectures will be divided into two 90 minutes courses and one 90 minutes class discussion and Q&A session.

Besides finishing the required readings, the students are also expected to take active participation in the discussion.

Completion of reading assignments before each class is essential to the success of the course. All reading assignments are detailed in the Moodle page, and PDF versions will be made available to students via the online system or sent to you directly the week before. Class attendance is mandatory, and asking questions as well as engaging in class discussion are strongly encouraged.

Modalità di verifica dell'apprendimento

Final Grade

The final grade includes:

1) A final paper (80%), 4,500-5,000 words, on a topic relevant to the course.

2) Class participation and engagement. Students are required to raise questions based on the reading assignments. The questions can be critical and here are some of the expectations for your questions.

NOTE: Since the course addresses one topic in one week, those who ask for leave and are accepted with reasons need to write a 1000 words memo on the week’s topic to make up for the leave. One memo for one week’s leave, two memos for two weeks’ leave. At least five memos for more five weeks’ leave. The memos should follow the following directives.

• Elaborate and critique the predominant arguments of the readings: What are the central arguments of the readings, and are the arguments logically consistent and complete? To what extent are the arguments from the different readings complementary or contradictory? 
• How do these readings speak to important debates or current developments in Chinese foreign policy? You are encouraged to reference one or more outside news reports or policy commentary in discussing the readings. Students are strongly encouraged to challenge the views in the readings and raise thought-provoking questions, which could provide food for class discussion.

 Academic integrity

Plagiarism will NOT be tolerated. Plagiarism is “a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work.” This includes ideas as well as specific phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.

Attività di supporto

The instructor will be available for office hours immediately after each class; students wishing to make an appointment should inform the instructor at the start of class.

Readings and Recommended Books

Most reading materials are chapters from classic books or recently published academic journal articles. They are reproduced and distributed to you for this course ONLY and are not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. If you make a request for, or latter uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of fair use, then that user may be liable for copyright infringement.

The following books are on the topics this course covers and are strongly recommended for your reference for this course or for your future research.

1. Samuel Kim ed. China and the World: New Directions in Chinese Foreign Relations, (Westview Press, 1989).
   
   
2. John Garver, Foreign Relations of the People’s Republic of China, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993).
   
   
3. Lu Ning, The Dynamics of Foreign-Policy Decision-making in China, (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998).
   
   
4. David Lampton, ed. The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001).
   
   
5. Andrew Nathan and Andrew Scobell, China's Search for Security, (Columbia University Press, 2012).
   
   
6. Jessica Weiss Chan, Powerful Patriots: Nationalist Protest in China's Foreign Relations, (Oxford University Press, August 2014).
   
   
7. David Lampton, Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2014).
   
   
8. Phillip Saunders and Andrew Scobell eds. PLA Influence on China’s National Security Decision-making, (Stanford, CA: California, Stanford University Press, 2015).
   
   
9. Suisheng Zhao ed., The Making of China’s Foreign Policy in the 21st century: Historical Sources, Institutions/Players, and Perceptions of Power Relations, (UK: Routledge, 2016),
   
   
10. Floran Schneider, China’s Digital Nationalism, Oxford University Press 2018.
    
    
11. Peter Martin, China’s Civilian Army The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy, Oxford University Press 2021.
    
    
12. Suisheng Zhao, The Dragon Roars Back: Transformational Leaders and Dynamics of Chinese, Stanford University Press, 2022
    
    
13. Joseph Torigian, Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion: Elite Power Struggles in the Soviet Union and China after Stalin and Mao, Yale University Press, 2022.

Great sources for research materials on Chinese foreign policy can also be found at: 

http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/theme/chinese-foreign-policy-database. 

https://jamestown.org/region/china-and-the-asia-pacific/

https://www.hoover.org/publications/china-leadership-monitor

http://www.chinafile.com 

Note

Erasmus students and students with special needs are invited to reach out to the professor at the beginning of the semester so as to make proper arrangements.

Professor Zhang meets students by previous appointment in person and on the Webex platform if needed.
Students are required to schedule the appointment via email (qingmin.zhang@unito.it and virginia.mariano@unito.it) by Friday of the previous week.

• Materiale didattico
• Bacheca appelli
• Orario lezioni
• Vai a Moodle
• Registrati a questo insegnamento
• Studenti registrati
• Invia email agli studenti registrati
• Esporta tabella