About HAQ

Harvard Asia Quarterly (HAQ) is an interdisciplinary journal of Asian affairs affiliated with the Harvard University Asia Center. The journal publishes articles, essays, and interviews from a broad range of disciplines, with especial emphasis given to contemporary politics. Contributors to the journal are scholars, professionals, and officials from across the globe.

HAQ is a quarterly publication that appears in March, June, September, and December. Back issues can be found on this website.

Latest Articles

Interview with Roderick MacFarquhar

Posted on June 25, 2011 by the Editor

Interviews by Ben Lowsen and Ouyang Bin

The text below is based on exclusive interviews conducted by the Harvard Asia Quarterly with Professor Roderick MacFarquhar in spring 2010 and spring 2011, respectively. In accordance with the interviews, it is divided into two parts. In Part I, we solicit MacFarquhar’s general opinions on Chinese politics since 1949, placing especial emphasis on the Maoist legacy and the enduring rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In Part II, MacFarquhar discusses his personal biography, including his time in military service, journalism, British politics, and academia.

Part I: Reflections on Chinese Politics  Read more...

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Commentary: Thoughts on the “Rise of China”

Posted on June 25, 2011 by the Editor

By Minxin Pei

In the early 1980s, China was just beginning to open to the outside world. Its per capita income was under US$500, and it did only a modest amount of international trade with the rest of the world. Today, the Chinese economy has been thoroughly transformed. It’s the world’s second-largest economy, largest exporter (by volume), and its per capita income has risen above US$4,000. I recall that in the early 1980s, the most optimistic forecast of China’s growth would predict 7 percent per annum. In fact, China’s growth over the last three decades has been about 10 percent per year.  Read more...

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Commentary: Three Ways of Looking at China’s Latest Campaigns

Posted on June 25, 2011 by the Editor

By Jeffrey Wasserstrom

One can imagine Chiang Kaishek’s ghost wandering around China today nodding in approval, while Mao’s ghost follows behind him, moaning at the destruction of his vision.
Rana Mitter, Modern China, Oxford University Press, 2008

The communist leaders of the world’s most populous nation are taking lessons from the small city state of Singapore…
“China’s Top Officials Study at Singapore’s Knee,” Asahi Shimbun, 6/29/10

 Read more...

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Making Plans for Markets: Policies for the Long Term in China[1]

Posted on June 25, 2011 by the Editor

By Sebastian Heilmann

Introduction
Political efforts at comprehensive development planning – that is, anticipatory public policy coordination for the long term and across policy sectors – have come under criticism, been in decline, or tacitly given up and scaled down in most political economies since the 1980s.[2] But we find one major case that challenges the verdict about a universal collapse of planning: China, the most dynamic large economy of the past thirty years. While dismantling many typical features of socialist industrial administration, it has reinvigorated its ambitions in long-term, cross-sectoral coordination of economic, social, technological, and environmental development from the mid-1990s through the 2000s.  Read more...

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Suppressing Communism in Singapore, 1920-1938

Posted on June 25, 2011 by the Editor

By Martin Andrew

Introduction
In 1918, the Straits Settlements were a Crown colony composed of the islands of Singapore, Penang and the areas of Province Wellesley, Malacca and the Ding Dings on the Malay Peninsula. As colonies of the British Empire, they were run by a colonial administration under a British Governor resident in Singapore, their capital. An island of 562 square kilometers, Singapore had a population of 600,000 in 1930. Fifty percent were permanent residents, of whom the majority was Ethnic Chinese. The Settlements hosted a large transient population – almost all Mainland Chinese nationals under contract – that reached 300,000 per year by the end of the 1920s. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, laws were introduced to curb Chinese male immigration, fuelling resentment against the colonial authorities.  Read more...

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