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Reviews 489 Jia Hao and Lin Zhimin, editors. Changing Central-Local Relations in China: Reform and State Capacity. Boulder, San Francisco, and Oxford: Westview Press, 1994. x, 270 pp. Paperback $45.00. This book is interesting both for its content and because twelve ofthe thirteen authors are mainland Chinese educated at the postgraduate level in the United States (the thirteenth is a Hong Kong Chinese). Eleven ofthe thirteen are resident in the U.S.; the other two are teaching at Hong Kong University. Six ofthe authors are doctoral candidates, five are assistant professors at U.S. postsecondary institutions. All are members of the association of Chinese Scholars of Political Science and International Studies, Inc. The editors acknowledge the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Encouraging Mainland Chinese to adopt the approach ofWestern political science to the study of China is well within the mandate ofboth of these foundations, so there is a strong fit here. The formula used by the editors to describe the contributors is quite revealing . For example: "Chen Feng, from Fudan University, earned a Ph.D. in political science at Syracuse University and is currently an assistant professor at the State University ofNew York, Oswego." Five of the authors are "from Fudan University ," an institution I attended myself for three years from 1978 to 1981. However, "Charles Burton, from Fudan University, earned a Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from the University ofToronto and is currently an associate professor ofpolitics at Brock University" doesn't sound quite right. This is because while my affiliation with Fudan was critical to my development as a Sinologist, it is but a fond memory to me now. I am "from Brock University"—my current affiliation. All ofthe authors are described thus with a Chinese affiliation as their primary affiliation, with what they are doing now given a transient cast by the modifier "currently." These are scholars who apparently see themselves as outsiders "from China" in their American universities. Be this as it may, this book demonstrates a sound grasp ofthe Western approach to knowledge and a comprehensive familiarity with the theory of comparative politics as well as with U.S. scholarship on Chinese politics. The editors acknowledge that the advice of such luminaries in the field as Arend Lijphart, AndrewW älder, and Ezra Vogel has guided the conception ofthis volume. The best possible counsel has been made available to them, and it shows in the final prod-© 1995 by University uct xhey naYC ^50 t,een well-Served by the "strong editing assistance" of ofHawai'iPressMadelyn Ross, who taught English at Fudan in the 1980s (but the textis quite awkward and difficult to sort out in parts, all the same). The preface notes that 490 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 in late 1990, at the initiative ofthe association of Chinese Scholars ofPolitical Science and International Studies, Inc. (CSPSIS), a group ofChinese scholars decided to work together to find a research project that could best capture the changing nature ofthe Chinese polity in the wake of its decades-long reform process. The participants were either directly involved in or had followed China's reform process for years while lately engaged in studying, teaching, and research in the United States. Before long we came to the conclusion that no single subject would serve our purpose better than the enormous changes taking place in the nation's central-local relations. The book is logically organized into three sections. The first, on historical perspective and overview, has chapters on the history of central-local relations in China, the impact of marketization in central-local relations, and institutional reorganization and its impact on decentralization. The second, on functional dimensions , has chapters on central-local fiscal policies, the rise oflocalism in rural areas, the role of state and nonstate industries in central-local relations, and the impact of foreign trade decentralization. The last section is titled "Regional Differentiation and Case Studies." It has chapters on regional inequality and central government policy, Guangdong, and Shanghai. While this project offers great potential, in the end the finished product is a rather dry and colorless text. There is little here that...

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