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The United States may be headed toward conflict with China unless Washington recasts its understanding of contemporary Chinese society.

After four decades of engagement, the United States and the People's Republic of China now appear to be locked on a collision course that has already fomented a trade war, seems likely to produce a new cold war, and could even result in military conflict. The deterioration of the bilateral relationship is the culmination of years of disputes, disillusionment, disappointment, and distrust between the two countries. Washington has legitimate concerns about Beijing's excessive domestic political control and aggressive foreign policy stances, just as Chinese leaders believe the United States still has futile designs on blocking their country's inevitable rise to great power status.

In Middle Class Shanghai, Cheng Li, who grew up in Shanghai during the oppressive years of Mao's Cultural Revolution, argues that American policymakers must not lose sight of the expansive dynamism and diversity in present-day China. The caricature of China as a monolithic Communist apparatus set on exporting its ideology and development model is simplistic and misguided. Drawing on empirical research in the realms of higher education, avant-garde art, architecture, and law, Li's unique study highlights the strong, constructive impact of bilateral exchanges.

Combining eclectic human stories with striking new data analysis, Li's book addresses the possibility that the development of China's class structure and cosmopolitan culture-exemplified and led by Shanghai-could provide a force for reshapingU.S.-China engagement. Both countries should build upon the deep cultural and educationalexchanges that have bound them together for decades. Li concludes that U.S. policymakers should neither underestimate the role and strength of the Chinese middle class nor ostracize or alienate this force with policies that push it toward jingoistic nationalism to the detriment of both countries and the global community.

With its unique focus, Middle Class Shanghai will enlighten policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and anyone interested in China and its increasingly fraught relations with the United States.

Contents:

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Rethinking Global Integration at a Time of Destructive Confrontation

I. Introduction

1. Shanghai's Middle Class and China's Future Trajectory

II. The Rise of Middle-Class China: Issues and Debates

2. A Failure of U.S.-China Engagement? Policy Debates in Washington and Beijing

3. Social Stratification and Cultural Pluralism in Reform-Era China: Scholarly Debates

III. Shanghai: the Pacesetter in China's Search for Global Power

4. Haipai: Shanghai Exceptionalism and Cultural Transnationalism

5. The "Magic Capital" and the "Head of the Dragon": The Birth of China's Manhattan

6. From Jiang to Xi: The Enduring Power and Influence of the "Shanghai Gang"

IV. Education and Art in Global Shanghai: Views, Values, and Voices

7. "Sea Turtles": The Study Abroad Movement and the Tidal Wave of Returnees

8. The Impact of Educational Exchanges: Returnees in Shanghai

9. Attitudes and Values: A Longitudinal Survey of Foreign-Educated Elites in Shanghai

10. Western Influence and Illusion: Shanghai's Booming Contemporary Art Scene

11. Dialoguing with the West: Critiques of Globalization by Shanghai's Avant-Garde Artists

V. Conclusion and Recommendations

12. Toward a Dynamic and Diverse Society: Implications for China and the United States

Notes

Bibliography (English)

Bibliography (Chinese)

Index

Artwork plates follow page 294.

Cheng Li is director and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. He is also a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. His previous books include Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership and Bridging Minds Across the Pacific: The Sino-US Educational Exchange. He is the principal editor of the Thornton Center Chinese Thinkers Series published by the Brookings Institution Press.