These essays reveal how China's Communist Party selected a new generation of leaders in late 2002 to maintain the position of a regional and world power. They explain how China's leaders are promoting a market economy and undertaking gradual political reforms and note the problems they are having in handling mounting political corruption, spreading unemployment, growing disparity of wealth and income, and a crisis of belief.

Introduction: The 16th Party Congress: New Leaders, New China Yun-han Chu, Chih-cheng Lo, and Ramon H. Myers; Leadership Change and Chinese Political Development Lowell Dittmer; The New Generation of Leadership and the Direction of Political Reform after the 16th Party Congress Suisheng Zhao; Jiang and After: Technocratic Rule, Generational Replacement and Mentor Politics Yu-Shan Wu; The Changing of the Guard: China's New Military Leadership David Shambaugh; Social Change and Political Reform in China: Meeting the Challenge of Success John W. Lewis and Xue Litai; State and Society in Urban China in the Wake of the 16th Party Congress Dorothy J. Solinger; Old Problems for New Leaders: Institutional Disjunctions in Rural China Jean C. Or; The International Strategy of China's New Leaders Gerrit W. Gong; US-China Relations in the Wake of the 16th Party Congress and Tenth National People's Congress Kenneth Lieberthal; Power Transition and the Making of Beijing's Policy Towards Taiwan Yun-han Chu; Systematic Stresses and Political Choices: The Road Ahead Richard Baum.