Julia C. Strauss is Professor of Chinese Politics at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she served as Editor of The China Quarterly from 2002 to 2011. Her work focuses on the twentieht-century Chinese state in China and Taiwan, the performative dimensions of politics, and China's 'Going Out' to the developing world, particularly towards Africa, and has published widely on these topics.

• Introduction. Modalities of state building and institution building: bureaucracies, campaigns, and performance; 1. Virtue and talent in making Chinese states: heroes and technocrats in Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 2. Comparative terror in regime consolidation: Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 3. Performing terror: lenience, legality, and the dramaturgy of the consolidating state; 4. Repertoires of land reform campaigns in Sunan and Taiwan, 1950–1954; 5. Theatres of land reform: bureaucracy, campaign, and the show, 1950–1954; Conclusion; Appendix: list of interviewees; Documentary collections, reports, and periodicals.

'A meticulously researched and elegantly presented study of state consolidation in mainland China and Taiwan. By shrinking the mainland geographic focus to Sunan, where the social roots of the communists were relatively weak, Strauss exploits rich archival data and builds analytical leverage to illuminate commonalities and differences in strategies of the two states as outsiders after 1949.' Melanie Manion, Duke University, North Carolina

Julia C. Strauss is Professor of Chinese Politics at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she served as Editor of The China Quarterly from 2002 to 2011. Her work focuses on the twentieht-century Chinese state in China and Taiwan, the performative dimensions of politics, and China's 'Going Out' to the developing world, particularly towards Africa, and has published widely on these topics.

• Introduction. Modalities of state building and institution building: bureaucracies, campaigns, and performance; 1. Virtue and talent in making Chinese states: heroes and technocrats in Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 2. Comparative terror in regime consolidation: Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 3. Performing terror: lenience, legality, and the dramaturgy of the consolidating state; 4. Repertoires of land reform campaigns in Sunan and Taiwan, 1950–1954; 5. Theatres of land reform: bureaucracy, campaign, and the show, 1950–1954; Conclusion; Appendix: list of interviewees; Documentary collections, reports, and periodicals.

'A meticulously researched and elegantly presented study of state consolidation in mainland China and Taiwan. By shrinking the mainland geographic focus to Sunan, where the social roots of the communists were relatively weak, Strauss exploits rich archival data and builds analytical leverage to illuminate commonalities and differences in strategies of the two states as outsiders after 1949.' Melanie Manion, Duke University, North Carolina

Julia C. Strauss is Professor of Chinese Politics at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where she served as Editor of The China Quarterly from 2002 to 2011. Her work focuses on the twentieht-century Chinese state in China and Taiwan, the performative dimensions of politics, and China's 'Going Out' to the developing world, particularly towards Africa, and has published widely on these topics.

• Introduction. Modalities of state building and institution building: bureaucracies, campaigns, and performance; 1. Virtue and talent in making Chinese states: heroes and technocrats in Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 2. Comparative terror in regime consolidation: Sunan and Taiwan, 1949–1954; 3. Performing terror: lenience, legality, and the dramaturgy of the consolidating state; 4. Repertoires of land reform campaigns in Sunan and Taiwan, 1950–1954; 5. Theatres of land reform: bureaucracy, campaign, and the show, 1950–1954; Conclusion; Appendix: list of interviewees; Documentary collections, reports, and periodicals.

'A meticulously researched and elegantly presented study of state consolidation in mainland China and Taiwan. By shrinking the mainland geographic focus to Sunan, where the social roots of the communists were relatively weak, Strauss exploits rich archival data and builds analytical leverage to illuminate commonalities and differences in strategies of the two states as outsiders after 1949.' Melanie Manion, Duke University, North Carolina