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dissatisfaction, unrest and conflict, and so it is no wonder that China’s authoritarian Party-State places political and social stability, alongside the market-led economy, as its main priorities in seeking to establish and maintain an “harmonious society”. Human-rights abuses continue, despite and sometimes because of international pressure. In 2008, many ordinary Chinese citizens (overseas and in China itself) demonstrated across the world against what they regarded as international interference in Chinese affairs, and China-bashing. Most threatening to the very fabric of the Party-State is the rampant corruption. The attempt to bring corruption under control is one of a number of reforms to the political system. Another example is the introduction of participatory, if not democratic, practices at the grassroots and basic levels of government. Reforming the Chinese Communist Party to grant more influence to the membership is also on the agenda. Whether the pace of these reforms is enough to meet the challenges to social justice is an open question. Economic power grants China considerable leverage in international relations, but it can also be problematic. The big if-and-when question within the region and the wider international system is whether there will be a struggle for dominance between the USA and China – and whether that will play out through economics and trade or some more deadly means. The current atmosphere of perpetual war, since the war on terror was declared in 2001, is frightening and would be more so if China too were pulled into the morass. The status of Taiwan and its mainland liaison activities is a constant source of concern, especially for those who see Taiwan’s democracy as a boon in the region. Meanwhile, statisticians and demographers in China collect large volumes of statistical information, through which they might measure the inequities across provincial and regional boundaries, and with which social scientists can interpret the state of China on the ground. It may be unfashionable but perhaps these public servants are more heroic, and certainly more functional, in determining what needs to be done in China now, and for whom. As we point out in Part Seven of this book, there are no perfect statistics, and even the collection of data is subject to political controls, both in China and worldwide. Statistics alone do not explain why one city will thrive under WTO regulations, whilst another will ignore them because they threaten local political elites, or because local businesses need local subsidy to survive and protect employment. One city will put resources and imagination into branding itself in the international imagination, whilst another will miss (or deliberately ignore) the point of tourism and “destination management”. There are maps in this book, then, in which to give a truly accurate picture of the state of China, we would need to provide detailed regional specifications, county- and township-level case studies, and a lot of historical background. Where we cannot give this detail we have suggested readings from works of current China specialists, in economy, culture, the social sciences and political history, and we really hope that readers are inspired to follow up these suggestions. There are many resources on the internet, the best of which we have tried to include in the commentaries at the back of this book. Financial pages of national newspapers are also good sources for seeing certain aspects of new China unfold before our eyes. Every deal, every bankruptcy, every corporate decision will affect someone, possibly many thousands of people, in contemporary China and beyond. As with all books, but especially one such as this, which requires a range of knowledge and expertise, the authors are indebted to the wisdom of others. The support (in time and space) from the Asian Studies and Chinese Departments

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