China, Hong Kong and the Long 1970s in Global Perspective

This research, based on carefully thought-out and wide-ranging investigation of original-source material, will cast light on issues that are highly relevant to current policymakers, notably, the nature of the transformation in China's policies and international position; why and how China has attained the international position it holds today; and how the global international system and its managers have in the relatively recent past handled the challenge of responding to changes in the balance of power and the integration of a major new stakeholder into that system.

This project brings together a group of researchers from Hong Kong, Great Britain, and the United States, aiming to explore the global ramifications of developments within China and Hong Kong during a period often termed the "Long 1970s" and which is attracting increasing attention from historians, as shown by a recent book of essays following an timely and topical conference at Harvard University (Ferguson et al, 2010), which emphasised the importance of viewing the decade from a global, rather than narrowly national, perspective. We seek to fill an evident knowledge gap regarding the relevance of China's misunderstood past to its eye-catching present and important future via a more thorough investigation of a period whose relevance has escaped the academic and policymaking community alike.

The proposed project seeks to further this research through a more specialised focus, concentrating primarily on the role of China and Hong Kong in the Long 1970s. It seeks to assess the interrelatedness between developments within-and between-China and Hong Kong, and how these were simultaneously affected by developments elsewhere. Not all such changes were necessarily straightforward.

The proposed study will explore the hypothesis that decisions and choices made (not necessarily consciously) during the 1970s laid the foundations for the economic growth that would fuel China's rise to its current status of potential challenger to US economic pre-eminence.
To explore this idea, the project team will analyse the relationship between domestic developments within China and Hong Kong; the great change of emphasis within China, from ideological warfare to modernisation and economic development; Hong Kong's role in the reorientation of China; and the relationship between these phenomena and broader global patterns of the 1970s.

A key component of this project will be the understanding of what the Long 1970s meant to Britain and the United States within the context of the changes taking place in China and Hong Kong. Considering factors such as Hong Kong's relationship to Great Britain at the time, the deep US involvement in the region, as well as the reopening of Sino-US relations in the early 1970s, this study will analyse their impact on the local, bilateral and global dynamic. It will seek to find comprehensive answers to how the British and Americans viewed China and Hong Kong; how they sought to reintegrate China into the global system; and what was the role of Hong Kong in such efforts.

Many of the researchers involved are past or present members of the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong, or possess significant connections with that University. All share an interest in some aspect of the Long 1970s, either in direct relation to Hong Kong and China, or through the exploration of comparative perspectives drawn from other countries. They have a long history of working with each other on various projects. They now seek to come together, to hold a series of three international workshops over three years - two in Britain and one in Hong Kong - at which they will present their findings; to visit each other's institutions and pursue related research. The ultimate outcome of the project will be a carefully themed book of related essays focusing on the role of China and Hong Kong in the Global 1970s.

Impact Summary
Who will benefit from this research?
This research will benefit all those, including academics, policymakers, and the general public, who seek an informed understanding of:
(a) The processes driving China's rise to global pre-eminence since the 1970s;

(b) Precisely how Hong Kong was involved in the transformation of China's policies during and after the Long 1970s;

(c) The relationships between China and other states within the international system, and how and why those relationships and the global situation facilitated changes within China and its reintegration into the international system;

(d) The nature of the Long 1970s, in terms of the evolution of both the international balance of power and the international political economy, evolved during that decade, with certain options selected and others rejected, especially in terms of global economic practices and policies and the preponderance of laissez-faire capitalism as opposed to more state-centric approaches;

(e) The degree to which the long-term impact of pathways chosen during the 1970s, in terms of the international political economy, has had reverberations extending into the early twenty-first century, in terms of the largely free-market, deregulatory norms and orthodoxies dominant since then and their impact-for good or ill-upon the global economy;

(f) The relationship between changes in economic development and in international politics over the past two generations;

(g) Issues of change and continuity in thinking on human capabilities, in terms of beliefs in progress and optimism as to the potential for enlightened policymakers to plan, engineer, and navigate the future, current from the late nineteenth century to the present time.

How Will They Benefit?

This research, based on carefully thought-out and wide-ranging investigation of original-source material, will cast light on issues that are highly relevant to current policymakers, notably, the nature of the transformation in China's policies and international position; why and how China has attained the international position it holds today; and how the global international system and its managers have in the relatively recent past handled the challenge of responding to changes in the balance of power and the integration of a major new stakeholder into that system.

The book in which the findings will appear will intentionally be written so as to be accessible to a general audience of informed readers. The format of the intended volume will be electronic, allowing for easier access to the public and a broader distribution range, especially at the international level. The book will be accompanied by press articles, thus ensuring not only a broader dissemination of the research results, but also greater accessibility to the public at large. A series of public lectures and seminars will be organised by the Cold War, East Asia and Transaltantic Programmes of LSE IDEAS in order to promote the research results and encourage public participation.