BOOK REVIEWS

Ian G. Cook and Geoffrey Murray, China’s Third Revolution. Tensions in the Transition to Post-Communism

This book belongs in the increasingly widespread category of works which inform the foreign public about things Chinese, but which add nothing in terms of research or analysis. Its authors are nonetheless ambitious, focusing on the third revolution China has seen since the beginning of the twentieth century, that of the reforms, in order to assess its results. Chapters are given to the reform of the public sector, the steel industry, the disparities between regions, the inequalities in rural areas, the national minorities, urban problems, housing and the environment. Each contribution sums up the situation and does it well, though one would have preferred a more critical presentation of the information drawn from the Chinese press. Most of the main issues are raised; but without going beyond the usual descriptions. China is changing, but the changes are not “complete”. The public enterprises do not work because they do not have enough freedom. “The authors' experience suggests that intra-urban disparities are on the increase, with beggars found in different urban areas around the country (1), and poor quality residential accommodations behind sophisticated hotels and office blocks” (p. 156). The photographs presented play on the much repeated themes of a China full of contrasts, blending old hovels and new skyscrapers, or a China rocketing into the future but beset with problems. The authors have, however, been less than ambitious in the theoretical framework they have given themselves. In the introduction they note that “throughout the remaining chapters, the reader would be well advised to bear in mind one lesson from 5,000 years of Chinese history (2)—namely, that repetition tends to rule the course of event (or, more colloquially, ‘there is nothing new under the sun')” (p. 21). In conclusion, among China's many strengths, one finds the usual reference to the importance of Confucianism (without it being explained how and why this influence is exerted). The book also does not manage to escape the dominant ideology of “transition” (transition towards what? We are not told: towards a “normal” society, but this needs to be described) as if all societies were not, by definition, in transition—unless one defends the idea of the end of history.

Translated from the French original by Michael Black