This course aims to provide an overview of the political history of China and Taiwan since 1949. We will compare and contrast the state building process in mainland China and Taiwan from 1950 to today. While both regimes were under the authoritarian rule at
the beginning of the 1950s, why did Taiwan democratize but not China? Meanwhile, does the democratic politics in Taiwan generate any implications for the democratic future of China? By comparing the state building process under the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) and Kuomintang (KMT), students will gain a better understanding of the theories and implications of the interaction between political development and economic development. The objective of this course is providing students a deeper understanding of theories of state building with regional knowledge of greater China.
We will start the course by briefly going over the political history in China and Taiwan before 1949. We then investigate the critical junctures of regime consolidation during the early state building period after 1949 in both mainland China and Taiwan. For the
remainder of the semester, we are going to compare and contrast different aspects of state building in China and Taiwan since 1950s. Due to the time limitation, we are only able to cover the following key aspects: party building, cultural policies, foreign influence,
economic transformation, and political reforms.
Instructor: Xiaobo Lü
Course number will change to PS143F prior to the first day of class.