Annotation
The course is focused on introducing students to modern history of China after 1842, which marks the time when China was first forced to enter international relations and abandon its isolation. The course will provide students with basic historical inertia necessary to critically analyse present China. On selected events, the course will demonstrate the most important trends shaping modern China. The course then focuses on the successes as well as challenges of present-day China. It looks into present day Chinese policies while indicating the historic continuities, thus giving students better and deeper understanding of Chinese affairs. Course outline
1. Chinese historical inertia introduction (Confucianism, dynastic cycle etc.)
2. The clash of civilizations: 1842 Treaty of Nanjing (China loses to Great Britain, domestic dynastic crisis)
3. End of the last dynasty, founding of the Republic (China after 1911 revolution, early modernization movements
4. China in the inter-war period (Warlords, Chiang Kai-shek, Communists, Japanese aggression)
5. China during the WW2 (Importance of the 1936 Xian incident with its implications for Europe and outcomes of the WW2 in general, China as part of the Allied forces)
6. The Peoples Republic of China (Reasons for the Communist party victory, first policies implemented)
7. Mao Zedong and his campaigns (Big Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution)
8. The reforms of Deng Xiaoping after 1978 (4 modernizations, one-child policy, Tianmen massacre of 1989, special economic zones)
9. Modern Chinese economy (state capitalism, emergence of the huge SOEs, Go Global, state champions)
10. Modern China – issues and developments (Xinjiang, Tibet, One Belt One Road, Role of Xi Jinping, environmental issues, population aging, territorial disputes, relations with neighbours etc)
11. Modern China – issues and developments Modern China – issues and developments (Xinjiang, Tibet, One Belt One Road, Role of Xi Jinping, environmental issues, population aging, territorial disputes, relations with neighbours etc)
12. Modern China – issues and developments (Xinjiang, Tibet, One Belt One Road, Role of Xi Jinping, environmental issues, population aging, territorial disputes, relations with neighbours etc)