● Purpose

As a result of the continuation of its long period of rapid economic growth, at the beginning of the 21st century China is making its presence ever more fully felt on the international stage. Its GDP has overtaken those of developed nations, and through its worldwide diplomatic efforts and increased military power it has come to exercise great international influence not only in Asia but also globally. In Japan, on the other hand, despite heartfelt admiration for China, the undercurrent of historical issues between the two countries, symbolized by the anti-Japanese demonstrations of 2005, has helped lead to persistent wariness regarding the “rise of China” and to discussions of a perceived “China threat.”

However, in spite of its image as a great power, with its population of one billion three-hundred million, China in fact faces various daunting internal problems. As the economic gap widens between East and West, and North and South, a vicious circle of poverty plagues disadvantaged areas, especially inland regions and rural hinterlands suffering from stagnation in the agricultural sector and increasing inequalities in social infrastructure. For this reason, the current administration led by Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabiao has given top priority to the “Three Agricultural Problems” represented by the current conditions of the agricultural sector, farming villages, and peasants themselves. The increasing economic pluralism and real advances in personal liberty that began with the post-1978 reforms have led to greater diversity in public opinion and an increase in formally-lodged protests, and the Chinese Communist Party’s system of one-party rule now must contend with tremendous societal pressure in favor of a pluralistic political system. With the expanding social and political influence of the burgeoning entrepreneurial class and the entrenchment of poverty at the opposite end of the socioeconomic scale, China’s class structure is in the midst of a great transformation as well. Furthermore, it appears highly probable that China’s emergence as a great economic power will have regional and global repercussions in terms of the environment and availability of energy and natural resources, such that great changes in both China’s internal conditions and its external relations are predicted for the near future.

Japan and China have a profound level of bilateral relations. Moreover, the questions of what problems China will face in the future and what advances it will make, and of what sort of foreign policy China as a regional power will pursue are all matters of great concern to Japan as they will have a powerful effect there. For this reason, Contemporary Chinese Studies is now more than ever the pillar of Area Studies in Japan. Given factors such as Japan’s wealth of resources in the field of East Asian Studies, China-related research in Japan ranks high internationally. However, more than ten years have passed since the “Structural Change in Contemporary China” project (1996-98) received funding under the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas program. Furthermore, the sort of organizational structure this involved would be highly inadequate for observation and analysis of the huge transformations in China described above. The fact that Chinese Studies are flourishing in the West, in Asia and throughout the world constitutes another reason why Japan must revamp its system for promoting research in this field. Given the unprecedented nature of China’s long-term transformations, there is an urgent need to foster ties among research organizations through the formation of a network and cooperative projects, as well as to raise the level of China-related research and train the next generation of researchers on a nation-wide basis. This will have the further effect of greatly contributing to the advancement of Area Studies as a whole in Japan and of providing a nation-wide organizational framework for future research in the field of Contemporary Chinese Studies.

From the time of its inception in fiscal 2007, the Contemporary Chinese Studies Network has worked to raise the level of Japan-based research on contemporary China through the formation of research centers and the establishment of an institutional network, and has striven to train the next generation of researchers.