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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Chinese Politics Part 1 – China and Political Science by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

4.8
stars
331 ratings

About the Course

This course offers a conceptual framework for understanding China that highlights the intersection of politics and economics. It shows that rather than develop into a full blown market economy, state and party officials at all levels of the political system maintain significant influence in economic development. Such a “political” economy has had both positive and negative outcomes, which we will assess in detail. We also look at the origins, views, backgrounds and relations among leaders, and how those leaders make decisions about public policy and try to get those decisions implemented down through the system. China has few formal institutions through which citizens can participate in politics, but we will study the strategies Chinese people use to try to influence their leaders’ decisions. Finally, we assess China’s future and whether rapid economic development and the emergence of a vibrant middle class will push China towards greater democracy or whether the single party system is likely to survive into the future. The course is a quite useful background for Chinese Politics Part 2 – China and the World. Course Overview video: https://youtu.be/7FpNL67EbE4...

Top reviews

OB

Nov 20, 2021

Excellent course for anyone interested remotely in China studies. This course covers topics from Chinese policymaking to Chinese economy, Chinese trade policies and China's rural democracy

EP

Jun 25, 2022

Really in-depth and engaging! I have to mention that the course is out of date as its from 2015 BUT the course provides a great political and historical understanding up until this point.

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1 - 25 of 78 Reviews for Chinese Politics Part 1 – China and Political Science

By Angel V

May 26, 2017

This course about Chinese politics is very good. Chinese politics are extremely complicated, especially for anyone coming from non communist states. This course is a very good introductory course on Chinese politics. China is the world’s second largest economy and one of the most influential countries today. The Middle Kingdom has a very unique political system. The professor is excellent and the institution providing this course is a world class university. I took Part I and Part II of this course. I really enjoyed both courses. I think even Chinese people would learn a great deal during this course. (我建议大家上这门课)

By Adam M

May 17, 2020

Fascinating and informative course. If I had to change something, I found that too often the questions often focused on details rather then understanding the material and themes.

By Fred I

Oct 26, 2018

Good lectures both for content and delivery. Good slides provided structure and direction plus they were available to download. This course is a must to understand relations between China and the U.S. I was confused by the papers. Since the quizzes just covered a module, I thought that the papers just covered the current module. Instead it required backup info from all the modules. This should be made clear in the paper directions. I will definitely take class two. I have taken plus 20 Coursera classes and I would rate it in the top 5.

By Tuna B

Mar 31, 2019

Excellent course on China. A little bit demanding but I loved the historical examples and the comparision of other academics. Mr. Zweig is really an amazing proffessor and I hope he will do more courses like this.

By Omkar B

Nov 21, 2021

Excellent course for anyone interested remotely in China studies. This course covers topics from Chinese policymaking to Chinese economy, Chinese trade policies and China's rural democracy

By Ella L I P

Jun 26, 2022

Really in-depth and engaging! I have to mention that the course is out of date as its from 2015 BUT the course provides a great political and historical understanding up until this point.

By Charlie W

Apr 12, 2017

Both enjoyable and informative. It is exactly the sort of crash course in Chinese politics I was looking for and I have been inspired to take my learning on the subject further

By Russil W

Sep 21, 2020

Provides a clear picture of all aspects of politics in China, as of 2015: its political structure (including the dominance and pervasiveness of the Party), the struggle to become leader and to consolidate power, policy implementation, societal engagement (including protests and passive resistance), political aspects of the economy (including the major waves of reform), and finally future developments. The instructor, Dr. David Zweig, is excellent: he presents the material clearly, and he has long experience in the field. I also found the readings quite helpful, although I should warn that you may need to use Google and archive.org to track them down.

By SincostanH

Jul 13, 2022

I absolutely enjoy the class. Professor Zweig explains everything so clearly, he is no doubt an expert on China and Chinese Politics. Each session is full of content, but as long as you take notes during the lecture, you won't have any problem. As a Chinese, I strongly recommend those people who are curious about what China really is like to attend this class, because here you can reveal the true appearance of Chinese society and politics.

By Jack H

Dec 31, 2023

I have thoroughly enjoyed my participation on this course. Brilliantly structured and delivered by our experienced and distinguished professor, I recommend this course to anybody curious about politics, international relations and affars, and China in general. I will most definitely be continuing with part 2 of this course in the near future and, based on my experience with part 1, I am really looking forward to getting started.

By Arusyak H

Jul 25, 2020

I've taken this course as I'm doing my research in Chinese foreign policy and I needed more insight on Chinese domestic and international politics. Prof. Zweig's lectures were interested, backed with surveys, facts, theoretical frameworks and his own experience as a researcher and a former student in China. I really enjoyed the course and I'm going to take Part 2 now!

By Andrew

Mar 26, 2018

I did this course out of personal interest and to practice studying in case I want to return to university in the near future. I really enjoyed the course and found the content interesting. I also feel it helped me to practice studying and assignment writing. The structure (videos 5-15 minutes long) was great for me too as I'm a stay at home dad 2 days a week.

By JOHN Q

Nov 20, 2017

I enjoyed this course tremendously, and discovered that there was a vast amount of information that I needed to learn about this SuperPower. China is an amazing country with an enormous population and economy, a history of remarkable achievement, and yet still unknown in many ways. Thanks for putting this course together.

By quentin v

Nov 17, 2019

This course permitted me to catch the domestic economic and political changes of China to replace them in the global evolution of the country and its relationship with the rest of the world. The written .pdf and .txt support make easy to constantly go back searching informations in the whole course.

By Mustafa N

Feb 14, 2018

This course is great! I learned a lot. More importantly, there were some well provided insights coupled with equally unique perspectives I simply never had before. Thank you The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. And thank you Coursera for hosting this course.

By Diana C M H

May 12, 2023

Gracias a este curso, es posible entender como funciona el Partido Comunista Chino, su influencia y presencia en el escenario politico de China. Aunque lo estoy haciendo algo tarde, en su momento debio ser lo mejor de la epoca.

By Trevor F

Jun 14, 2021

The course was a great overview of the structure of the Chinese political system, and some of the challenges it has faced since the Mao era. I thought the sections on Deng's economic reforms were especially interesting.

By Matthew J

Sep 3, 2019

Very interesting class with a great teacher! Only complaint I have is that the tests have overly-specific questions (the questions bank on obscure dates and names), and that there are some typos on the notes slides.

By SUN Y M

Apr 20, 2017

Great course with intense knowledge. Just because I had little history background of modern China. Another short course to state facts of history may be helpful. This one is challenging.

By Claudio C

Oct 15, 2017

Excellent. One of the best MOOCs I have taken. The videos, the materials provided (articles and excerpts to read, slides etc.). Moreover, if one writes somebody answers!

By Ariel K

May 24, 2020

As someone who had a lot of prior knowledge about Chinese politics, this course gave me more dept on the topic and put my previous knowledge in order. Wonderful course.

By John D

Mar 6, 2016

A well-structured, thoughtful course delivered by a true expert on the subject. One of the finest courses available throughout the entire Coursera platform.

By Harry D

Jun 10, 2020

Great class! I learn a lot about Chinese politics even though I am a Chinese citizen. I hope that questions of quiz and final exams can be ameliorated.

By Ralph R F

May 20, 2019

Comprehensive and practical. Prof. David Zweig's narrative teaching style and his first hand experience made the course content easy to understand.

By Marisa C G

Nov 5, 2020

El mejor curso para comprender la estructura del sistema político chino, la retroalimentación del tutor complementa perfectamente cada sesión.