ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a macro level overview of China's administration history and explores status, which began with the transformation of China's public administration in the late 1970s. It examines many contemporary issues of public administration in China and shows how they are affected by past and provides contexts, including fundamental values, past lessons, and political realities. The chapter suggests that China's public administration as a giant system with political, economic, demographic, and cultural dimensions that is incrementally and steadily shifting toward modernization. China has a multimillennium administrative history that is divided into three stages: royal, state, and public administration. China is a unitary country and the hierarchical chain of the government extends from the State Council to rural township governments and urban street governments. Administration in China evolved over multiple millennia and involves three periods: royal, state, and public administration periods. The public administration period after 1978 is associated with the increased modernization of Mainland China.
