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Module content

ÌýToday, China is the world's second-largest economy, and, in the past ten years, it has contributed around 30% of global growth. This module focuses on China’s re-emergence as a key global player. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the module explores the post-1979 ‘Reforms and Opening Up era’, which began with Deng Xiaoping’s intention to achieve a ‘moderately prosperous society’, and the implication that economic growth needs to be balanced with sometimes conflicting goals of social equality and environmental protection.

Therefore, the module aims to enable students to critically understand how the Chinese state and other actors envisage a prosperous future, and what does that mean for approaches to the culture, economy, sociality, governance, and the environment.

While the past four decades have seen a sharp reduction of poverty, this has been accompanied by a substantial increase in inequality alongside major environmental degradation and pollution as well as challenges to state control at the fringes. In 2020, ranked China 92nd out of 156 countries, with China's happiness index ranged at 5.12 points, but data collected on the ground would seem to question the suitability of the six indicators used by that Report (GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support, trust, perceived freedom for life decisions, and generosity). The module thus asks how is China’s prosperity reflected in the quality of life and well-being of various groups of Chinese people, such as migrant workers, women, youth, etc.?

China’s re-emergence on the global geopolitical scene poses particularly urgent questions, which we will consider both as challenges and opportunities to the creation of socioeconomic and ecological prosperity for China itself and the rest of the world. These emerging challenges to China’s prosperity not only question the long-term viability of the Chinese dream but also raise important questions about China’s role in developing new visions of the global future.

Each topic will introduce China-related theoretical concepts as well as showcasing key practical case studies. By the end of the module, the students should have an understanding of Chinese governance and development pathways to prosperity, and an appreciation of the key issues China confronts as a major global player -- drawing also on the IGP’s wide range of prosperity-related research in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

In discussion and assessed work, students will further be encouraged to make links between their academic study, real-world issues, and their own lived experience in line with the connected and inclusive curricula. The theoretical, empirical, and analytical tools offered in this module will equip students to become leaders who will contribute to a critical engagement with China that addresses the interdependent aspects of prosperity in countries across the world.

Illustrative module outline

1. Greater China: Chinese Values in a Global World
2. China's Imperial Discourse of Prosperity
3. The Trade Imbalance with China: From the Opium Wars to the China-US Tariffs War
4. China's Rise and China's Discourse of Prosperity Today
5. The China Model: Economy and Inequality
6. China's Visions of Urbanism and Citizenship
7. China's Environmental Values: 'Ecological Civilisation' and the Green Schools Project
8. Global Strategies and New Form of Development: The Belt and Road Initiative
9. Hong Kong and Alternative Visions of Prosperity
10. China’s Pathways to Development: Lessons for Global Prosperity?