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In Pursuit of an Alternative Model? The Modernisation Trap in China’s Official Development Discourse

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Abstract

This article contributes to the debates on China’s socio-political transformations by tracing the link between China’s modernization and nationalism, and analysing their mutual interplay. Many recent studies discuss post-Mao China’s development as a unique model challenging earlier development approaches. Instead, the argument pursued here points to the dependence of China’s dominant development thinking on the paradigm of modernization and its symbolic celebration in official discourse and public rituals. By tracing the impact of the modernization paradigm in the influential annual publication China Modernization Report and in the 2009 National Day mass parade, the article shows how and what kind of Chinese nation is produced. I argue that China’s ostensibly unique development model is constrained by the modernization thinking underlying it. Analysis of the discourses on modernity and ‘scientific development’ and the symbolism associated with them reveals a series of dichotomies and oppositions underpinning China’s nation-building. China’s pursuit of modernization relies on the suppression of other possible development paths within China and subsumes Chinese development experiences under those of the generalised West, thereby restricting development alternatives to those allowed within a hierarchical view of the world.

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Notes

  1. Among the advisors for the China Modernisation Strategy Research Group in charge of publishing the China Modernisation Report are the president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the former Minister of Science and Technology, and the former director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [28: 2].

  2. See the China Development Gateway for the list of all reports: http://en.chinagate.cn/node_7105517.htm.

  3. See, for example, ‘How to improve China’s Soft Power?’, People’s Daily, 11 March 2010, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90785/6916487.html; ‘Report: China to complete first stage of modernization by 2015’, People’s Daily, 29 January 2007; ‘CAS report: China's national strength ranks third globally’, People’s Daily, 30 January 2008; ‘China expected to join medium-level developed countries by 2040’, People’s Daily Online, 1 February 2010, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90862/6884259.html; ‘Report: China still in early stages of development’, People’s Daily Online 15 January 2011, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7263476.html; ‘Report: China holds middle ranking for modernization’, People’s Daily Online 17 January 2011, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7263334.html.

  4. It is interesting to note that the China Modernization Report is published by Beijing University Press rather than the China Statistics Press, the official bureau in charge of practically all statistical yearbooks in China. The Report is presented as the product of intellectual efforts by a team of China’s leading scholars, adding weight to the officially formulated state policies through their ‘scientific’ approach to the study of modernisation.

  5. On the historical emergence of China’s geobody see a recent study by William A. Callahan [13].

  6. The major intellectual debate since the start of China’s reforms and opening-up has been between the so-called ‘New Left’ and Liberals. Both groups have been characterised by substantial internal heterogeneity. The basic argument of the ‘New Left’ intellectuals concerns the issues of social justice and equality in China’s market reforms, while Liberals advocate market and social freedoms, including the principles of liberal democracy. For more on China’s intellectual debate see [23] and [53].

  7. Shanghai’s historical role as a ‘gateway to modernity’ in China is an increasingly popular area for study in Chinese and Western scholarship [8, 62].

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  1. University of Manchester, Politics, Social Sciences, 4.005 Arthur Lewis Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Elena Barabantseva

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Correspondence to Elena Barabantseva.

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This article further develops and illustrates the argument which I first outlined in Overseas Chinese, Ethnic Minorities, and Nationalism: De-Centering China (2010). The article substantially benefited from comments and conversations with William A Callahan, David G. Goodman, Nicola Phillips, Maja Zehfuss, Ian Bruff, and Shogo Suzuki. I would like to thank the participants of ‘China’s Futures and the World’s Future’ workshop held in Manchester in February 2011 and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The research for this article was made possible by the generous research support from the British Inter-University China Centre. All inconsistencies in the argument and errors are mine alone.

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Barabantseva, E. In Pursuit of an Alternative Model? The Modernisation Trap in China’s Official Development Discourse. East Asia 29, 63–79 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-011-9158-8

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