It first assesses the state of the
field of the study of Chinese politics in mainland China, and argues that this
scholarship is underdeveloped in comparison with the study of home-country
politics in some other countries. It then clarifies the often blurring boundaries in
contemporary China between the political science study of Chinese politics on one
hand and other categories of political writings on the other, and maintains that the
political penetration from the Party-state has been the major factor that hinders the
intellectual development of the study of Chinese politics as a branch of political
science.