The Modern Chinese State is the first book to examine systematically the evolution of the Chinese state from the late Ming Dynasty of the 17th century, through the Nationalist and Communist party states of the 20th century, and into the 21st century. Leading scholars on modern China carefully assess the internal organization of the Chinese state over time, the ruling parties that have governed it, the foreign and indigenous systems that have served as models for state-building and political development, and the array of concepts that have guided Chinese thinking about the state.