A Review Of The Research On The Governance Of The Communist Party Of China In The United States Since The Beginning Of The New Century

It is known that overseas researchers have been studying the Communist Party of China's(CPC's)governance for long,both its theories and practices.In the twenty first century,it is an indisputable fact that the rise of China has been a major change for global governance and the world pattern.Since China has achieved rapid social progress and economic development under the leadership of the CPC,its ruling position has become more strengthened.Today,as the sole ruling party in China,the CPC is the unarguable core leadership of the socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics.As a result,overseas researchers have fixed their eyes on the CPC to solve the mystery of China's development.Since the beginning of the new century,researches from the United States have been dominating overseas studies on the CPC's statecraft of China.There are three main reasons.First,America had the tradition of Chinese studies,and the researches of CPC's governance of China stem from this tradition.The studies on the CPC was generally developed from the long-term Chinese studies and Sinology studies,giving them a firm academic accumulation and tradition to stand upon.Second,the fission and reconstruction of the international pattern,the strategic need of the American government and the everchanging China-US relations in the twenty first century is the external drive for all fields of the US to study the CPC.Third,as an objective impetus,the rapid development and change of China in the twenty first century led by the CPC has dramatically draw attention of the world including US researchers.Looking back into history,studies on the CPC's governance of China by US researches before 21 th century could be divided into three stages: preliminary stage(1921-1948),foundational and mature stage(1949-1978),transitional and expansion stage(1979-2000).Each stage had its distinctive features in researcher groups,research subjects and research methods.In the new century,American researchers paid close attention to the theories and practices of the CPC on ideology,cadre team,market economy and social governance.On the ideological level,American researchers analyzed the theories and practices of the ideological work under the leadership of the CPC.The researchers analyzed the content of the ideology,namely the guiding thoughts and political culture of the Party.They analyzed the function of ideology inside and outside China.Generally speaking,American researchers' main ideas studying on the CPC's leadership of the ideological work can be sorted into two types: the objective evaluation type and differentiation skepticism type.Currently,the “CPC mist” is reappearing in the American ideology,giving rise to hostile sentiment.This situation is both a challenge and an opportunity for the CPC.Hence,the CPC must seize the opportunity and dispel the ideological “mist”.On the level of cadre team,American researchers' discussion mainly focused on themes of ordinary Party members,group leadership of the Party,reform and transformation of the cadre system and the fight against corruption.The topics that attracted the most attention from the American researchers include the thinking and ability to govern the country through group leadership of the CPC,model of “elite politics” and “faction politics” and the question of whether or not the anti-corruption campaigns are in essence “power struggles”.It can be found out through summary that in studies on cadre team of the CPC by American researchers,there are still limitations of traditional theoretical models and frames,failing to unveil the selection rule of CPC cadre system.On the level of market economy,American researchers have shown wide interest on topics of socialist market economy model built under the leadership of the CPC and how the CPC will lead the market economy in the future.A great number of high-quality research results have been achieved.Most of the researches acknowledged the achievement CPC has made in leading the market economy.Their theoretical frame based on “relation between Leninist political party and market economy”.In the meantime,their research had the problem of positive evaluation“disconnecting” from the research itself.On the level of social governance,American researchers focused on the Party's function in rural and urban area governance,relation between the CPC and social organizations and prospect analysis of CPC's social governance.On the basis of acknowledging the performance of the CPC's social governance,these researches were question-oriented,stressing the importance of research methods such as quantitative study and fieldwork.However,limited by “nation-society” dichotomy or the “party state” theory model,these researches gave insufficient attention to the important role CPC's primary-level organization has played in social governance.In the new century,there were things “changed” and “unchanged” concerning the researches on the CPC's statecraft by American researchers.They have been following the research hotspots and trends which changes from time to time,this is what has “changed”.However,they could not jump out of the existing research thinking and methods,this is what has “unchanged”.In conclusion,the US needs to reassess the CPC's role in China's reform and development,while China have to speed up the construction of the “Chinese discourse” with the “CPC discourse” at its core.We shall do our best to be good storytellers of the CPC's governance of China.