12 - Conclusion: The Logic of Governance and the Future of China

Summary

While it is true that Western tradition has supplied much of the basis for the world civilization now emerging, it remains to be seen whether China will participate in that world culture in the same sense that Algeria or India or Japan or Nigeria will; China may yet throw out a powerful challenge to the Western principles upon which the emerging international culture is based.

G. William Skinner (1964, p. 518)

In this concluding chapter, let us reflect on the questions raised at the beginning of the introductory chapter in the quotations by Samuel Huntington, Philip Kuhn, and David Landes: Why has Chinese civilization survived its two thousand years of history and not suffered the same demise that was experienced by many other ancient civilizations? Why has China’s centralized authority survived for such a long time over such large territories with significant cultural and economic diversity? Why has Chinese society experienced long years of stagnation in modern history but witnessed an outburst of vitality and spectacular economic development during the last four decades? All these questions are interrelated and lead to the theme of this book, that is, the institutional logic of governance in China.