The People's Republic of China (PRC) is a newly emerging world power, and yet is still a developing state that must deal with the liabilities and opportunities of globalization. While integrating with the world economy, the PRC has had to articulate a newly defined role for itself as a world power. Moving beyond limited historical confines of bilateral relations with states in the Asia Pacific region, the PRC is developing a new perspective and arguably more sophisticated policy to deal with the changing international relations agendas of free trade, human rights, and security and economic...

The 'rule of law' is more than the mere existence and application of law within the sphere of state activity. Contemporary Chinese debate on the 'rule of law' underlines the limiting of arbitrary government, the materialisation of 'human rights', legal protection of 'rights and interests' and the principle of equality in the impartial legal mediation of conflicts within society's 'structure of interests'. Based upon China interviews and a comprehensive survey of the domestic press and Chinese-language legal journal materials, this book places pre- and post-Tiananmen Square legal reform in...