China’s Political Stability: Comparisons and Reflections

  • Shiping Zheng
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Abstract

There has been a long and ongoing debate about whether China is stable or fragile. This study hopes to shed some new light on this debate by placing the issue of China’s political stability in a global, comparative context. We have analysed a total of six sets of publicly available indices measuring political stability and state fragility. Special attention has been given to comparing China with Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa, members of the so-called BRICS group. Our findings present a “mixed picture” which suggests that the Chinese government has no reasons for celebration or for paranoia. China has indeed been facing multiple sources of threats to its political stability, but it is no more politically unstable or fragile than many others in the world.

Keywords

Foreign Policy Composite Indicator Chinese Communist Party Political Instability Political Stability 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Shiping Zheng
    • 1
  1. 1.Global StudiesBentley UniversityWalthamUSA

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