As an independent basic social science, the study of politics occupies an important position among all the social sciences. In 1952, however, China abolished political science teaching and research. This was a mistake which is now being corrected. China has reestablished the field of political science in recent years.

When a historical event is shown to be mistaken, people often like to describe the reasons for its having taken place as very absurd and unimaginable, as though to demonstrate how confused people were at that time compared with how smart we are now. Such a simple attitude, however, will not help us in understanding the realities scientifically nor will it help us in learning from the lessons of history, and is therefore to be avoided.

This essay describes both objective conditions and the way people thought, both in the early 1950s and after 1976. It deals with two opposite events: first, the abolition of political science in China three decades ago, and second, its current revival.

As is the case with other social science disciplines and sub-disciplines, the field of international relations (IR) is beginning to assume a scholarly identity in China today. In some respects the field is building upon a foundation laid prior to the Cultural Revolution (when in 1964 then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the establishment of several IR research institutes and academic training programs), but in a very real sense it is only now being established for the first time. China's current opening to the world has provided additional stimulus to the development of the field as China's leaders and bureaucrats seek policy-oriented analyses of foreign nations. The field is expanding rapidly. This study will assess the current state of the field and will evaluate the potential for and impediments to developing the discipline.

Defining the Discipline

Various complex problems arise in trying to define the scope of the discipline of international relations in the Chinese context. Perhaps the biggest problem is that Chinese IR scholars and specialists have not themselves clearly delineated the parameters of their field. International relations therefore does not yet have a distinct identity as a discipline despite an increasingly strong institutional base of scholarship and analysis.

Basic to an understanding of China is the fact that it is a Third World nation. The country is clearly very poor. Eighty percent of the population is rural and a large number of the urban dwellers are engaged in low-status, unskilled jobs. There are many involved in trade and selling for artisans and small shop-keepers. While there, I was on occasion surrounded by peddlers, including children, imploring me to buy trinkets and other small items.

The most common form of transportation, by far, is the bicycle. It is omnipresent, particularly in the cities. People ride bikes everywhere. During the times when people are going to or coming from work, it is often hard to pass because of the density of bike-riders. On the roads between the cities, every form of transportation known to the human race may be seen with the exception of the rickshaw. Since the rickshaw is symbolically associated with exploitation in pre-Communist days, it is now outlawed. The current range of road transportation varies from Mercedes to women pulling carts with ropes around their necks, as well as wagons pulled by donkeys or water buffalo.

There are few machines in the countryside. Tractors, other than one horse-power ones, are quite rare. The rural areas frequently offer a sight portrayed in many classic Chinese pictures, hundreds of peasants in the fields working by hand transplanting rice and doing other tasks. While there are many large rice fields, tiny plots of land are also common. It seems as if almost every inch of land that can possibly be farmed is, including cleared areas going up steep mountainsides. Among other crops, wheat is grown on these small mountainside plots. The contrast between these tiny hand-tilled fields and the vast, mechanized wheat farms of North Dakota or Saskatchewan is depressing.