Jiang Zemin stepped down as president after the 16th Chinese Party Congress but still holds the powerful chairmanship of the Central Military Commission and has placed his protégés in the powerful nine-member Politburo's Standing Committee. The 16th Congress has put in place new leaders who are called upon to transform the country into a "new China."

This book explores the new realities in China and its leaders following the 16th Congress. Obviously, Jiang is still a power to reckon with as President Hu Jintao still defers to him for the most important political decisions, particularly on foreign affairs and the thorny issue of unification with Taiwan. The personality of Jiang cannot yet be taken out of the political life in China.

The transformation of China can be summarized in terms of three interlocking and mutually reinforcing changes: modernization, political reform and globalization, say John W. Lewis and Xue Litai, authors of a chapter dealing with social changes and political reform in China. The two authors say that at the 16th Congress, Jiang called on China to take "the path of new industrialization" based on science and education, sustainable development and the accelerated deployment of information technology.

The link between reform and a new vision of modernization sets the direction for progress in China post 16th Congress. Both Lewis and Xue say that the vision of progress may also threaten the one-party system in China because the private sector is competing with and has surpassed the state-owned sector of the economy by creating a multitude of companies that are independent of and in competition with the Communist Party's interests. They predict that political competition may emerge among national and regional factions, which will have divergent interests and thus will threaten or fracture the unity of the Communist Party, which has a membership of 66 million people.

"The Party has taken a huge gamble, and the problems with which we begin this analysis could grow and overwhelm its chosen strategy," they say.

Jiang's contribution to the transformation of China began with economic reform. In February 2000 he added an ideological aspect to the reform by introducing what has become known as the "Three Represents" (san ge daibiao) which are: (1) the Party should represent advanced culture, (2) advanced relation of production and (3) the interests of the broad masses of people. Lowell Dittmer says the Three Represents fail to mention the working class. Later on, Jiang opened the Communist Party to the middle class and even members of newly-rich business community.

Chinese officials have explained that the Three Represents call on intellectuals, scientists, engineers, managers and "advanced productive elements" in society to become representatives of the working class.

Jiang's Three Represents have been criticized for favoring the elite in the economy at the expense of the proletariat at a time of high unemployment and economic inequality.

What effect does the 16th Congress has on Taiwan issues? Yun-han Chu has written a long essay on the making of Beijing's policy towards Taiwan, in which he argues that Jiang holds the ultimate power in making that policy even though he is no longer president of the country. In the past, the role of drawing up policies towards Taiwan belonged to the top leader, from Mao to Deng. Jiang handled the issue when he was president but still continues to do so even after stepping down. Reunification with Taiwan is now considered a long-term mission and Beijing leaders will not push for a final solution as long as it can be achieved peacefully while they are trying to accomplish the task of modernizing China. The fact that Jiang continues to make decisions on Taiwan is attributed to his leadership since he issued the eight points on Taiwan policy. Hu prefers to let Jiang conduct the sensitive task of resolving the issue of reunification and to follow the policy guidelines formulated by Jiang. Author Yun-han Chu considers the present arrangements in Beijing, in which Jiang is still holding on to power, as a transitional period until the time when Jiang will definitely retire and Hu will assume full power.