This Cornell Contemporary China Initiative's theme this semester is "China: The Central State and All Under Heaven."  Faculty director, Mara Yue Du (History).

At the core of the “China Dream” and China’s rise in power at the global stage is the Chinese Communist Party’s proclaimed role in the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”—a restoration of China’s historical glory and its rightful place as a “Central State” of “All under Heaven.” To achieve this goal, China’s current leader Xi Jinping requires the party “not to forget the original intention,” which could be interpreted as either a return to Marxist-Leninist fundamentalism, to Mao’s integration of “Marx” and Legalism of China's first imperial dynasty, to Republican ethno-nationalism, or to state Confucianism combined with territorial expansion in imperial China. As China’s past looms large in its present, understanding the historical relationship between the "Central State" and "All Under Heaven" is critical for our analysis of China’s economy, society, politics, and international engagement at the present and in the future.