The University Press of Kentucky

Westerners seem united in the belief that China has emerged as a major economic power and that this success will most likely continue indefinitely.

The world was watching when footage of the “tank man”—the lone Chinese citizen blocking the passage of a column of tanks during the brutal 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square—first appeared in the media.

China’s rapid socioeconomic transformation of the past twenty years has led to dramatic changes in its judicial system and legal practices.

As Asian countries emerge as global economic powers, many undergo fundamental political transformations.

With an economy and population that dwarf most industrialized nations, China is emerging as a twenty-first-century global superpower.