AP Comparative Gov't: China

fragmented authoritarianism

a negotiated state or consultative totalitarian regime into which the current Chinese system has blended by creating space for autonomy, loopholes for bargaining, and hopes for democratization.

guardianship

ascription to the interrelationship between the Communist Party and society. The party founds its claims to legitimate rule not upon representation of the expressed preferences of a majority but upon representation of the "HISTORICAL BEST INTERESTS" of all the people. In theory, as most ordinary citizens do not know their best interests, society is best piloted by an elite spearhead party with a superior understanding of the historical and authentic laws of development . . . In effect, the dictatorship in the name of the people is the Communist Party dictatorship.

danwei {work unit}

common reference to the workplace in urban China after 1949. The unit was ubiquitous: Until the mid-1980s, government and party organizations, state-owned enterprises, financial institutions, and educational establishments were all designated as units. With few exceptions, unit employees were entitled to lifetime employment. Typically, a unit provided its employees with housing, education, health care, recreational activities, rationed goods, pensions, and so forth. For many, the distinguishing feature of a unit was a lifetime social-welfare system from cradle to grave, and a network of relationships encompassing work, home, neighborhood, and political membership. Thus, many scholars trace the origins of the unit variously to the Communist free-supply system from the 1930s, the heritage of labor protest, and the evolution of labor-management institutions.

Falun Gong

controversial Chinese spiritual movement founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992; its adherents exercise ritually to obtain mental and spiritual renewal. The teachings of Falun Gong draw from the Asian religious traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Chinese folklore as well as those of Western New Age movements. The movement's sudden emergence in the 1990s was a great concern to the Chinese government, which viewed Falun Gong as a cult . . . The government's actions, rooted in concerns about the recent revival of independent religious activities in China and fears of the revolutionary nature of religious movements in Chinese history (e.g, the Taiping Rebellion), may drive Falun Gong underground, but its beliefs and practices will probably survive in a variety of forms.

dictatorship of the proletariat

in Marxism, rule by the proletariat—the economic and social class consisting of industrial workers who derive income solely from their labour—during the transitional phase between the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of communism. During this transition, the proletariat is to suppress resistance to the socialist revolution by the bourgeoisie, destroy the social relations of production underlying the class system, and create a new, classless society. one component of the Four Cardinal Principles (together with the social road, hegemony of the Chinese Communist Party, and Marxism) asserted by Deng Xiaoping by which to

Five-Year Plan (1953-57)

method of planning economic growth that stressed rapid industrialization. It proved highly successful—a strong central governmental apparatus proved able to channel scarce resources into the breakneck development of heavy industry, for it was explicitly modeled on Soviet experience, and the Soviet Union provided both material aid and extensive technical advice on its planning and execution . . . The march to socialism seemed to go along reasonably well with the dictates of industrial development . . . Shortly after the second plan began in 1958, the Great Leap Forward was announced; its goals conflicted with the five-year plan, leading to failure and the withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1960.

democracy movement (Tiananmen Square incident)

series of protests and demonstrations in China in the spring of 1989 that culminated on the night of June 3-4 with a government crackdown on the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Although the demonstrations and their subsequent repression occurred in cities throughout the country, the events in Beijing—and especially in Tiananmen Square, historically linked to such other protests as the May Fourth Movement (1919)—came to symbolize the entire incident.

GONGO (government-organized nongovernmental organization)

social and business association that essentially assumes the vanguard of a government agency, conceived to take advantage of the interest of foreign governments and international NGOs ([genuine] nongovernmental organizations) in order to ripen Chinese civil society.

Hong Kong

special administrative region of China, located to the east of the Pearl River (Xu Jiang) estuary on the south coast of China. With the resumption of Chinese (formerly British) sovereignty over the territory in July 1997, the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (promulgated by the National People's Congress of China in 1990) went into effect. The guiding principle of the Basic Law was the concept of "one country, two systems," under which Hong Kong was allowed to maintain its capitalist economy and to retain a large degree of political autonomy (except in matters of foreign policy and defense) for a period of 50 years.

Central Committee

the highest organ of the Communist Party of China that convokes annual "plenary sessions" to inquire into policy changes and to winnow out 20—25 members for the Political Bureau; the Central Committee's own 200 full members are elected by the National Party Congress from among 2,000 delegates.

General Secretary

the highest ranking member of the CCP and the head of the Politburo Standing Committee.

guanxi {Mandarin, literally 'connection.'}

the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings. a preponderant element in Chinese everyday life, both individual and group interests are asserted via such relationships. There is a particular image of society behind this concept. Many Chinese see society in the first instance as a hierarchically structured order covered by an interlaced network of relationships. While for many Europeans a person's outward appearance and behavior may be important, for many Chinese, who one knows and to which group or work unit one belongs are of consequence.

Confucianism

the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th-5th century BCE and followed by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the substance of learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has also extended to other countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Confucianism, a Western term that has no counterpart in Chinese, is a worldview, a social ethic, a political ideology, a scholarly tradition, and a way of life. Sometimes viewed as a philosophy and sometimes as a religion, Confucianism may be understood as an all-encompassing way of thinking and living that entails ancestor reverence and a profound human-centred religiousness. East Asians may profess themselves to be Shintoists, Daoists, Buddhists, Muslims, or Christians, but, by announcing their religious affiliations, seldom do they cease to be Confucians.

(Great Proletarian) Cultural Revolution

upheaval launched by Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966-76) to renew the spirit of the Chinese Revolution {(1911-12), nationalist democratic revolt that overthrew the Qing (or Manchu) dynasty in 1912 and created a republic.} Fearing that China would develop along the lines of the Soviet model and concerned about his own place in history, Mao threw China's cities into turmoil in a monumental effort to reverse the historic processes underway. . . . Mao thus ultimately adopted four goals for the Cultural Revolution: to replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking; to rectify the Chinese Communist Party; to provide China's youths with a revolutionary experience; and to achieve some specific policy changes so as to make the educational, health care, and cultural systems less elitist. He initially pursued these goals through a massive mobilization of the country's urban youths. They were organized into groups called the Red Guards, and Mao ordered the party and the army not to suppress the movement. . . . Perhaps never before in human history has a political leader unleashed such massive forces against the system that he created. The resulting damage to that system was profound, and the goals that Mao sought to achieve ultimately remained elusive.

harmonious society

CCP propaganda label promulgated by Hu Jintau for the continuation of economic reform but with more concern for the growing wealth and welfare gap between urban and rural china

Deng Xiaoping

Chinese communist leader, who was the most powerful figure in the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. He abandoned many orthodox communist doctrines and attempted to incorporate elements of the free-enterprise system into the Chinese economy.

Four Modernizations

Deng Xiaoping's proposition for rehabilitating China after the economic dislocation wrought by the Cultural Revolution. Its provisions underscored an agenda in agriculture, industry, science and technology, and defense.

democratic centralism

Leninist-derived decision-making practice and disciplinary canon adopted by the CCP, conflating democracy (which allows for free and open inner-party consultation and criticism) and central control (which safeguards party unity and discipline). Communist Party hierarchy and the requirement that party members observe statist discipline are engineered as guarantees that the party, in exercising leadership over society, behave as a unified force, receptive to the leadership of the highest level of party organization.