China Case Study - AP Gov
The State Council
- the State Council, China's executive branch, is the primary organ of daily government activity and is led by the premier -the premier is recommended by the party's Central Committee and then formally elected by the NPC -Li Keqiang will serve for two 5 year teams in tandem with President Xi -premier is typically the second of third ranking member of the PSC -the premier and his cabinet of ministers and commissioners govern China -the council oversees the work of China's 25ish bureaucratic ministries and commissions (manage the country's economy, foreign relations, education, science, technology,etc) -like the CCP's Politburo, the State Council has its own standing committee, which meets twice weekly -the State Council's primary responsibility was the management of China's socialist economy (in the past) -China's State Council has shown more administrative flexibility in adapting to the needs of a more open economy -the council's ministries and commissions formulate and implement most of China's laws and regulations
Microblogs: A Social Revolution
-CCP leaders recognize that the country's capacity to compete in the 21s century requires embracing the technology of his digital age -this explosion of social media has also given Chinese activists new means to publicize government corruption and abuse, rally support for social causes, and organize protests -the authoritarian party-state has also taken up its keyboards and filters -constructed its "Golden Shield" ("Great Fire Wall of China"), the party-state's huge project of social media control (very successful) -the CCP's net nannies have not been able to fully tame China's mobile phone-based microblogs -for several years, the popular microblogging service Weibo offered a relatively open venue for Chinese to express their opinions and share uncensored news and rumors -in 2012, the central government cracked down on Weibo by no longer permitting anonymous postings, filtering and censoring sensitive content, flooding the site with propaganda, and punishing those who violated strict new laws governing the site -now, users migrated to the WeChat app, a mobile text and voice messaging communication service that permits communication among friends -silencing these proliferating message apps and social networking platforms would be hugely unpopular and perhaps impossible
Local Government
-China has been unified and ruled centrally for over 2,000 years -this system had led successive authoritarian regimes, including the current one, to resist notions of federalism and hold to the belief that unity and stability are possible only under strong central leadership -parallel structure includes 32 provincial-level administrative units, almost 3,000 counties, over 40,000 townships, and more than 700,000 villages -each level is modeled on the central government and has parallel party and government councils, administrative departments, and congress at the provincial, county, and township levels -increased social complexity and the political and financial demands brought on by reform and opening are making their mark on local policies -the central party leadership has devolved substantial economic policy-making authority to regional and local officials -local officials are given no authority to tax nor provided with other sources of revenue and have used their control of property and licensing within their jurisdiction to seize lands occupied by local residents, offering only meager compensation in return -these local party-state leaders then sell the property and the right to build on the land (factories, ex) -these local officials then share the profits with the developers, leading to the over expansion of factories and the sprouting of numbers of questionable mega-projects across China -too often, the local residents are forced to endure dangerous levels of pollution emitting from these factories or are thrown off the land altogether -central political leaders have been experimenting over the past 3 decades with gradually increasing measures of local democratization -by the early 2000s, some 600,000 villages across China had begun conducting local elections -simultaneously, increasingly brazen farmers and workers had begun to call for the right to elect their local party secretaries, who are the real locus of power at the village level
The Constitution
-China is ostensibly governed by a constitution that is designated "the fundamental law of the state" and that vests formal authority in both party and state executive and legislative offices -Mao Zedong and his successors have been little deterred by the checks or balances inherent in the formal institutions of either party or state -political leaders have sought in recent years to formalize rules for policy making and succession and have succeeded -China's political elite nonetheless continue to rely on their informal sources of power as much as or more than on their formal position or titles -political rule in post-Mao China has remained largely vested in a single "paramount" leader surrounded by a key group of 25-35 highly influenced political elites -the personal and particular nature of political rule has meant that the Western notion of rule of law (all citizens are equal under the law) has generally not prevailed in China -country's legal issues = highly politicized -reform and opening has forced the state to seek new means of maintaining control and influence, including increased reliance on legal statutes -the growing complexity of economic and social life has required the state to adopt new laws governing the environment, contracts, labor relations, trade, in particular, has had a huge impact on legal reforms as foreign investors, local entrepreneurs, and international bodies such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) have increased pressure on Chinese authorities to abide by contracts and to respect property rights
State Capitalism and Foreign Investment
-Communist China's 21st century economy is decidedly capitalist -in the past decade, the private sector's share of industrial output grew from just over half to nearly 3/4ths of total output -the remaining SOEs are very large, very important, and remain very much favored by China's capitalist system -the party-state has tightened its grip on a number of "strategic" industries at the commanding heights of the economy, such as oil and coal, transport, and telecommunications -these state firms receive preferential lending, favored market access, and other benefits -moreover, the party-state has retained partial or substantial ownership in many of China's ostensibly "private" firms -critics note that state-sponsered industrial policies have led to inefficiency, corruption, and surplus labor in the state sector -they have allowed SOEs to consume the largest share of credit granted by state-owned banks -despite these drawbacks, China's continued success with its version of state-led capitalism has led some to give this neo-mercantilist development model the label Beijing consensus -in addition, this preferential state treatment for domestic firms has hampered prospects for foreign prospects for foreign companies investing or doing business in what has long been coveted as the world's largest potential consumer market -its WTO membership has required China to take significant market-opening measures -and domestic firms (esp. SOEs) face growing competition from foreign enterprises -still system remains substantially closed
Establishment and Consolidation of a Communist Regime
-Japan's defeat at the end of WWII found the CCP much strengthened and the KMT in disarray -1949, communist forces entered Beijing and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) -remnants of KMT fled to the island of Taiwan, declaring their Republic of China as the legitimate government of all of China which the US recognized until 1979 -the new communist regime faced the challenge of modernizing a country that was far behind the West and ravaged by a century of imperialism and war -forming a close alliance with the USSR, China began a process of modernization modeled after Stalin's Soviet Union (nationalization of industry, collectivization of agriculture, and central planning) -at the same time, the CCP began to repress ruthlessly those viewed as hostile to the revolution (several million were killed)
Maoism
-Mao believed that the key to revolutionary success lay in the ability of the Communist Party to create a "new socialist man" and to alter the way people think -while building in important ways on traditional Chinese political culture, Mao introduced some radical concepts -he promoted constant class struggle, emphasized the collective over the individual -Mao sought to transfer that loyalty to the larger community, as embodied by the party, the state, and, locally, the danwei (work unit) -in Mao's view, revolutionary thought could replace Chinese values, and the party could promote these ideas through constant propaganda and slogans, mass campaigns, and the education system -Mao regularly favored political correctness over technical expertise, often at great cost to China's economy and most infamously during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution -China's current leaders neither demand nor desire the type of mass mobilization that was a hallmark of Mao's China -the current leadership instead prefers a largely depoliticized public
Affluence without Industrialization-and Foreign Challenge
-at the advent of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), China still led the world in science, economics, communication, technological innovation, and public works -during these three centuries, Chinese innovation and economic development began to stagnate -by the mid-1400s the Chinese Empire had banned long-distance sea travel and showed little interest in developing many of the technological innovations it had created -the Portuguese first reached China by 1514, and during the 16th and 17th centuries other European traders sought to expand these initial contacts -these remained tightly controlled by the Chinese, however, and attempts to expand connections were futile -The First Opium War with Great Britain resulted in a resounding Chinese defeat, forcing China to cede Hong Kong to the British and pay restitution -foreign pressures in turn contributed to growing domestic instability
The Erosion of Central Authority: Civil War and Foreign Invasion
-by the beginning of the 20th century, the centralized authority of the Chinese state, developed over 2,000 years, effectively crumbled -in 1911, a public revolt finally swept away the remnants of the Qing dynasty -China was declared a republic but soon feel under the control of regional warlords -two main political organizations formed to compete for power -the Nationalist Party (KMT) slowly grew in strength under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen -the party was aided by student protests in 1919 that came to be known as the May Fourth movement -the second organization was the Chinese Communist Party, formed in 1921 by leaders of the May Fourth movement -the CCP's founders sought to organize China's nascent working class to resist the exploitation of both foreign imperialists and domestic warlords -by 1928, the KMT had emerged as the nominal leader of much of the country while the CCP was pushed out of the cities and into the countryside -the KMT quickly shed any pretense of democracy, growing even more dictatorial and corrupt -Mao Zedong progressively gained power of the CCP during its repression -deviating from the Marxist convention that revolutions be led by the urban proletariat, Mao believed that a communist revolution could be won by building a revolutionary army out of the peasant class -he and the CCP established their own independent communist republic within China, but KMT attacks forced the CCP to flee westward in the Long March -Long March = set back for the CCP, helped Mao consolidate power and his vision -in 1937, both the KMT and the CCP faced a new threat as Japan launched a full-scale invasion of the country after several years of small incursions -war weakened KMT power, bolstered CCP nationalist credentials and reinforced its ideology -war also forged a strong communist military (People's Liberation Army)
Ideology and Political Culture
-during the rule of Mao Zedong, the party-state attempted to reshape China's traditional political culture through massive propaganda, mobilization, and repression -the importance of communist ideas has waned since the time of Mao's death, especially as a capitalist economy has come to replace state socialism -while Mao violently rejected traditional Confucian cultural norms, China's current leaders have embraced these values as a homegrown source of legitimacy
The Judiciary
-in China, the law is subject to the leaders, not the other way around -China's leaders practice rule by law, rather than submitting to the rule of law -the PRC's legal system did not function under Mao, and no criminal code existed before 1978 -legal reforms since that time have established a judicial system, but it remains subservient to the party hierarchy, which routinely protects officials form the law -China has been severely criticized by human rights groups, both for its extensive incarceration or political prisoners and for its eagerness to employ capital punishment -observers estimate that tons of prisoners are being held in labor reeducation camps -Amnesty International notes that during one of China's periodic "strike hard" campaigns, Chinese authorities executed more criminals in 3 months that did the rest of the world in the previous 3 years -50,000 practitioners of the outlawed Falun Gong meditation sect and numerous other religious practitioners and ethnic minority activists have been detained as political prisoners
Major Geographic and Demographic Features
-in addition to boasting the largest population in the world, China is also one of the largest countries in terms of landmass -China's physical size allows for a range of climates and geographic features -most of the Chinese population lives in the southern and seaboard portions of the country -intersecting this region are the two lifelines of China the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, which flow east toward the Pacific Ocean -the Three Gorges Dam project brought attention to the Yangtze river -Three Gorges is the biggest dam ever constructed, generating millions of kW of electricity and help prevents the flooding that has been a recurrent problem -China has launched a project to divert water from the Yangtze and its tributaries in southern China where water is more plentiful to the arid and heavily populated north, a region suffering chronic water shortages (very expensive!) -the Chinese are a puzzlingly homogenous population -over 90% of the population is considered (and considers itself) part of the main ethnic group: Han -the southern portion of the country is not only more amenable to human habitation but also free of the extreme geographic barriers, such as high mountains and deserts, that impede travel and migration -historically, the Yellow and Yangtze rivers connected much of the country, allowing knowledge, foods, animals, and culture to spread more easily -such connections helped foster the emergence of a single Han identity -China was first unified as early as 221 BCE
Nationalism
-it has perhaps become even more important in the 21st century as the nominally communist party-state seeks new sources of legitimacy for retaining its monopoly of political power -fierce nationalism has been a cornerstone of Chinese political culture -Communist leaders frequently use nationalism to maintain support for the political system -China's successful hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics both expressed and confirmed the key role of patriotism and nationalism in 21st century China -more recently, China has stirred nationalist sentiment in its territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian countries (S.C.S.)
The Chinese Communist Party
-membership in the CCP remains essential for acquiring political influence and status and has proven extremely beneficial financially -membership in the CCP is both sought after and selective -in 2013, the CCP had more than 85 million registered members (roughly 8% of China's adult population) -every year the CCP accepts 2-3 million new members ->25% of the current CCP members are under 35, >33% have college degrees -different sectors of society have been gradually targeted for inclusion in the party as the needs and priorities of the party-state have evolved -Mao Zedong's most significant contribution to communist doctrine was his inclusion of peasants as an integral part of communist revolution -during the 1950s, the CCP sought first to create and then recruit a sector of industrial workers to establish a more orthodox Communist Party -since Mao's death, China's reformist leaders have successively broadened the definition of political correctness in an effort to co-opt into the ranks of the party those deemed important to reform program -the CCP broadened the definition of the party in a 2001 policy known as the Three Represents to include not just workers and peasants but even private entrepreneurs -as of 2011, over 90% of China's 1,000 wealthiest individuals were either officials or members of the CCP -but even as increasing numbers of scholars and other interested observers inside and outside China predict the collapse of the CCP rule, this ruling party celebrated the 90th anniversary of its founding in 2011
The Succession and Circulation of Elites
-one of the greatest challenges to perpetuating the CCP's political dominance has been the issue of political succession -China faces the problem of having no institutionalized "vice office" to ease the transition to a successor when the top leader dies -Deng Xiaoping did not assume formal leadership positions in either the party of the government when he came to power two years later and launched his reforms -Deng also sought to institutionalize a succession process that would avoid the uncertainty and instability associated with his own ascendence -he chose not only his own "third generation" replacement, but also his fourth -each of these successive leaders came to power possessing less personal authority than his predecessor -to retain the party's monopoly of power, this core group of party elite has shown its willingness and ability to follow established norms of succession, putting in place term limits and mandatory retirement ages to ensure the circulation of elite -moreover, the promotion of elites within the party is now based as much on merit as on personal or factional connections
Confucianism
-one significant influence over the political culture and ideology of the Chinese people has been the teachings of the scholar Confucius -the post-Mao Chinese Communist leadership has embraced key elements of Confucian philosophy -under the tenets of Confucianism, the role of government is to impose a strict moral code and foster "correct" behavior -central to the Confucian worldview are the ideas of hierarchy and social harmony -peace, order, and stability in both the family and the nation flow from the proper actions of benevolent superiors and obedient inferiors who all know their rightful place in society and act accordingly
China's Growth Model Brings Challenges
-reform and opening have created rapid growth as well as huge problems -FIRST, as China's enterprises have become more profit oriented, employers are free to lay off unproductive labor -SECOND, after decades of communist emphasis on equality, the reforms of the past three decades have made China much less equal -Gini index peaked at .49 in 2008 -much of China's inequality is regional -most of the activity in direct foreign investment and industrialization is concentrated along China's eastern coast -thus, China is rapidly urbanizing, but nearly half of the population still lives in the countryside -early economic reform largely benefited the rural areas, but more recent reforms have focused primarily on China's cities, and much of rural China remains desperately poor and largely neglected -this disparity among regions has pushed hundreds of million of Chinese to migrate to the cities to escape rural poverty, pulled by the lure of factory jobs and employment in the growing service sector -those who migrate to cities lack an urban hukou (residency permit) and are excluded from the relatively more generous urban welfare system -even with this discrimination, the state has been unable to stem the tide of migration -THIRD, rapid industrial development has created huge resource shortages and environmental damage for China -a fourth of the country is desert, and three fourths of its forests have disappeared -its rivers are drying up, and the water and air that remain are filling with harmful chemicals -increasingly, China's problem has become the world's problem (China surpassed the US in 2008 as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gasses) -FINALLY, China's exports are also causing problems as its trade surplus with its trading partners grows and controversy mounts concerning China's violation of intellectual property rights -most serious problem: China's economic growth is slowing -the prospect of declining growth is particularly troublesome to a government that has staked its legitimacy on the ability to continue delivering prosperity to its populace -disagreement about how to proceed with these reforms has led to the emergence of two broad factions within China's core leadership -one faction = populists, led by Hu Jintao and includes current premier Li Keqiang -populists, while recognizing the need for continued reform, the populists favor equality and the need to address China's growing economic disparities, unemployment, and the tattered social safety net -other faction = elitists, led by Jiang Zemin -leaders in this faction after the offspring of former high-ranking officials -they favor economic freedom and efficiency over equality
Centralization and Dynastic Rule
-sovereign power was centralized and expanded by the Han dynasty, a reign marked by great cultural flowering and the rise of domestic and international trade, foreign exploration, and conquest -the philosophy of Confucianism influenced the imperial leaders with its emphasis on a fixed set of hierarchical roles, meritocracy, and obedience to authority -Confucianism also helped foster the development of the Chinese civil service, a corps of educated men chosen on the basis of a rigorous series of competitive exams testing their familiarity with Confucian thought -with the collapse of the Han dynasty, China was divided for nearly four centuries, until the Sui and Tang dynasties -the institutionalization of the bureaucracy also helped foster the development of a gentry class made up of landowners and their children, who were groomed from birth to join the bureaucracy -subsequent dynasties continued to rely upon the bureaucracy to maintain Chinese unity, even when new dynasties were established by foreign conquerors -such continuity helped foster economic development and innovation
Political Institutions
-the CCP exercises control over the state, society, and economy through the nomenklatura system -the party also maintains direct control over the government and the bureaucracy through a political structure of "organizational parallelism" -these CCP bureaus supervise the work of the state agencies and ensure that the party's interests prevail -party officials and organizations orchestrate the policy process and direct the votes of the party members who hold elected and appointed government and state offices -the CCP maintains this same control at the regional and local levels of government -Mao and the party-state ensured control through the work system, reinforced by the household registration system -reform and opening has erased most aspects of these hierarchical structures of state control -today, the day-to-day choices of most Chinese citizens are governed much less by the party-state and much more by the free market -among other consequences of the weakening of the party-state's institutions of social control, China today has its floating population -China's 21st century authoritarian party-state has worked to keep pace -the state has drawn on the same technologies that have aided China's rapid development and hastened social mobility to maintain and even enhance its efforts of social control through high-tech surveillance and censorship -the opening of the economy and the growing complexity of Chinese society have inevitably weakened China's authoritarian regime -these changes, combined with the long-standing inefficiency of China's enormous bureaucracy and growing problems of corruption and nepotism at all levels of government also call state capacity into question
Political Conflict and Competition -The Party System
-the CCP's ostensible monopoly of power and the absence of any formal political opposition allow us to consider China an authoritarian regime led by a one-party state
Communist Party Institutions and Organs
-the National Party Congress (NPC) "elects" its Central Committee (CC) which in turn "selects" the Politburo -the sevenish members of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) make up the top political leadership of China -PSC convenes in weekly meetings headed by the general secretary of the party (Xi Jinping) -PSC members are "elected" by the 25ish Politburo members, but it is the PSC that typically determines all key national policy decisions -the Politburo effectively serves as China's governing cabinet, and each members is responsible for a particular set of policy areas or issues that roughly correspond to the ministerial portfolios of the government's State Council -party leaders determine the makeup of both the Politburo and the PSC before the actual casting of ballots -when the 200 or so CC members vote, all candidates run on the ballot unopposed -despite the largely ceremonial role of the CC, its members constitute the pool of China's party officials who are groomed for top leadership -membership in the CC simply confirms the elite status that these party leaders have already earned through personal connections and patronage ties -the CC is elected by the National Party Congress (the party's cumbersome representative body), similar to American party conventions -too unwieldy and meets too infrequently to conduct any real policy making -Party Congress meets on 5 year intervals -most recent 18th Party Congress marked the state of General Secretary' Xi Jinping's first term -here he unveiled his Chinese Dream policy -policy calls for China's ascendance to a "moderately well-off society" by 2021 and becoming a fully developed nation by 2049 -the party-state has since elaborated the Chinese Dream to include four components (civility, harmony, strength, beauty) -this vision replaced and built upon the mission statement of the previous decade announced by Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao (Hu called for the creation of a harmonious society) -in the Party Congress and its CC, delegates are left with few if any choices of candidates for the higher-level bodies, and their senior leaders heavily influence the choices they can make -like the government, the CCP also staffs its own bureaucracy (Secretariat) -the Secretariat oversees the implementation of Politburo decisions and the distribution of propaganda in support of these decisions -party leaders have used the Central Military Commission to retain tight control over the armed forces -a final party organ, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, is charged with maintaining party loyalty and discipline and rooting out corruption -each of these institutions is part of the central party structure located in Beijing -each province also has a party committee -below this level, the party is represented by comparable organizations at the country, city, district, township, and village levels -the lower-level party leaders have often exercised a degree of autonomy
Other Institutions -The People's Liberation Army
-the PLA, which comprises of China's army, navy, and air force, has played a significant role not just in China's revolutionary history but also in contemporary Chinese politics -Mao used the prestige and heroic stature the PLA garnered in battle before 1949 to add legitimacy to the communist-party state once the PRC was established -economic reconstruction in the 1950s brought the Red Guard to heel during the Cultural Revolution and smashed TS protests -party leaders have sought to narrow both economic and political role of the military -party leaders have forced the military to sell off its extensive industrial and commercial interests, reduce its manpower, and upgrade the PLA's professionalism and technological prowess -even with the downsizing, the PLA remains the world's largest military force with a standing army of some 2.25 million troops and a budget of $190 billion -the CCP established the Central Military Commission, first within the party and later as a government agency, to guarantee party control over the gun
The National People's Congress
-the State Council is formally appointed by China's parliament, the National People's Congress, which serves as China's unicameral legislative branch -NPC elections are held every 5 years -the NPC's nearly 3,000 delegates represent both geographic and functional constituencies -delegates to the NPC are elected indirectly by provincial people's congresses and typically convene annually for about two weeks to "elect" a standing committee -the top leader of the NPC must also be a member of the CCP's Politburo Standing Committee -the NPC Standing Committee then meets regularly -the NPC has never had an independent or influential role in policy making -rather, it has most often served to ratify policies already determined by central leaders -in more recent years, the NPC and its standing committee have gradually become venues for delegates to offer opinions, express dissatisfaction with government policies, and even occasionally cast dissenting votes -as its constituent committees and specialized policy groups have become more knowledgeable and sophisticated, the NPC has started to shape these policies of reform -the full NPC is far from being a democratic body (too large, meets too seldom & too briefly)
Society -Ethnic and National Identity
-the country is populated mostly by Han Chinese (who make up more than 90% of the population) but it recognizes at least 55 minority nationalities -even among Han Chinese, there is tremendous linguistic diversity -Han speakers are divided into 8 main language groups and hundreds of dialects -since the 20th century, Beijing has imposed Mandarin as the official language of government and education -although China's minority nationalities comprise only a small percentage of the population, many reside in strategic "autonomous areas" that make up >60% of China's territory and have a long and often violent history of resistance to the Chinese state -the country continues to face demands for increased autonomy from the Turkic Uighur minority in the northwestern province of Xinjiang and from Tibetans in the southwest -Muslim Uighurs and Buddhist Tibetans have long resented CCP control, and proponents of a "Free Tibet" and an "East Turkestan" continue to champion independence or at least greater autonomy -these voices come primarily from outside China's borders -Chinese Communist leaders have always viewed sovereign control of both regions as vital and nonnegotiable -the recent discovery of extensive fossil fuel reserves in western China and these regions' strategic position have made full control of these areas even more important to Chinese authorities -in recent years, the government has pumped billions of dollars into the regions, improving transport and communication infrastructure, including the construction of the world's highest altitude railway (Tibet) and city-wide broadband in Xinjiang's larger cities -the investment has provided jobs, income, and opportunities to locals, particularly the educated elite -but it has also brought waves of Han Chinese, who now outnumber the local population in Xinjiang and claim the largest share of new jobs in both regions -when resentment and complaints turn violent, the regime has not hesitated ro react with harsh repression -harsh repression has not, however, quelled ethnic protest
Political Regime
-the country remains stubbornly authoritarian -despite China's economic liberalization, this party-state retains the essential organizational structure that the Chinese Communist Party adopted from the Soviet Union at its founding in the 1920s -their decision to retain a closed political system is in accord with Lenin's communist vision -political authority both within the party-state and from the party-state to broader Chinese society still flows largely from the party elite to those within the party, the state, and society, who are expected to submit to this authority -however, China's rapid economic growth in recent years and its increasingly complex society have compelled the party-state to devolve substantial authority to regional and local officials
Historical Development of the State
-the country's first political leaders can be traced to the Shang dynasty, which reigned from the 18th to the 11th century BCE -during this time, written Chinese emerged -power in the country was decentralized and feudal wars among various rivals were commonplace -during the Qin dynasty a single Chinese empire was born -this period first experienced political centralization through the appointment of nonhereditary officials to govern provinces, the minting of currency, the development of standard weights and measures, and the creation of public works, such as roads, canals, and portions of the Great Wall
Reform and Opening after Mao
-the party gradually came under control of leaders who had themselves been victims of the Cultural Revolution -most important was Deng Xiaoping, a top party leader from the earliest years of the CCP -Deng pursued modernization at the expense of communist ideology, in what became known as "reform and opening" -the government encouraged the gradual privatization of agriculture and then business -it also cultivated foreign relations with capitalist countries -moreover, the government expanded foreign investment and trade while deemphasizing ideology -one reform that did not take place was political -the CCP still maintained complete control over political life -by the 1980s, serious problems had emerged (inflation, unemployment, corruption, etc.) -students played a major role in expressing discontent over this situation -1989, 100,000 students and other citizens marched in the streets of Beijing and eventually occupied Tiananmen Square -military was brought in, hundreds were killed and arrested -over the next few months, thousands of students and others connected to the protests were arrested and students throughout China were required to attend communist ideology indoctrination courses -China's successive CCP leaders have in essence offered a social contract to their citizens (political subjugation for economic prosperity)
The Head of State
-the president of the PRC is China's head of state (entirely titular office) -Deng Xiaoping designated Jiang Zemin as head of state in 1993 -Zemin held office until 2003, handing the office to Hu Jintao -and in a move indicating the increasing institutionalization of the leadership process, Hu Jintao likewise surrendered all three offices to current leader Xi Jinping
Challenges to China's Communist Political Culture
-there is growing evidence that the strict party control of Chinese political culture is steadily eroding -TS = first major sign the Communist Party no longer had a monopoly on political ideas -the spiritual success of Falun Gong and China's thousands of illegal Christian "house churches" has frightened the Chinese government -Internet and social media usage vital to economic growth has exploded in China and created a venue for Chinese political activism -booming trade and tourism have released a flood of Western ideas and values
Traditional Centralized Authoritarianism
-traditional Chinese political culture was far more resilient than Mao imagined when he deemed China's population as "poor and blank" -Mao's communists moved the capital from Nanjing back to Beijing and in doing so directly connected their rule to traditional Chinese authoritarianism -in many ways, the communist regime replicated elements of the rigid and hierarchical imperial system
Experimentation and Chaos under Mao
-within a few short years, however, China had diverged from the typical Soviet-style path of communist development -in China, some liberalization took place -Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956 encouraged public criticism and dissent, though it soon ended, and the most prominent critics were removed from their positions of authority -China's first major break from the Soviet model was the Great Leap Forward -departing from the model of highly centralized planning, Mao reorganized the Chinese people into a series of communes, which were to serve all basic social and economic functions, from industrial production to health care -each commune was set to its own policies for economic development within the guidelines of general government policy -state capacity was thus devolved, albeit within an authoritarian system - the Great Leap Forward quickly faltered -overall economic and agricultural production declined, leading to disorder, famine, and the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese -in the face of this, Mao stepped down and China recentralized production and state control -Mao drew the conclusion that the problem was not that CCP policies had been too radical but that they had not been radical enough -he thus sought to place himself back at the center of power and reignite fervor by constructing a cult of personality -in 1966, the cult took shape as Mao and his supporters accused the CCP itself of having "taken the capitalist road" and encouraged the public to "bomb the headquarters" -Red Guards (student radicals) took the streets to act as vanguards of Mao's Cultural Revolution -authority figures were attacked, imprisoned, tortured, exiled to the countryside, or killed -historic buildings, writings, and works of art were destroyed -Mao made himself the charismatic center of all authority and wisdom -the result of this new vision was years of chaos and violence as the country slid into near civil war -the only remaining institution with any authority was the PLA
Civil Society
-civil society did not officially exist in Mao's China -by strict definition, any organized interests outside the party-state were considered illegitimate and potentially harmful -the party-state has created a number of mass organizations to control society and mobilize social groups to fulfill its own national goals (GONGOs = government organized NGOs) -such groups are led by party officials and assist the party-state in disseminating information and implementing policies -the party-state gradually has begun to open space for civil society by authorizing the work of a growing number of NGOs -they are restricted to nonpolitical arenas, typically still with government sponsorship or monitoring -however, as rapid urbanization and industrialization have placed increased demands on government at all levels, an estimated 1 to 2 million additional unregistered NGOs have emerged, often with the party's blessing or at least tolerance -predictably, a number of these NGOs and social activists have moved from simply providing services to advocating for the groups they serve -the party-state has not hesitated to harass, detain, and arrest these groups and individuals -this communist party-state decided in 2001 to welcome private capitalists into the CCP -leaders argued the CCP ought to represent the interests not just of workers and peasants but also the private agents of China's "advanced productive forces" -this open/awkward embrace acknowledges the growing economic influence of China's capitalists and the inevitable pressures of the growing middle class to express its interests -the state's efforts in co-optation have given rise to a growing group of red capitalists who have benefited from economic reform, prefer social stability, and therefore have little reason to challenge the state or make new demands on the policy agenda -a wide variety of social protests have bubbled up outside the official confines of the party-state -to date, all significant attempts to form unauthorized political or social interest groups have been swiftly repressed -the party-state launched a repression campaign against practitioners of the meditative martial arts movement Falun Gong -as the movement rapidly gained adherents and grew in stature and organizational capacity, it caught the attention of the state which began to impose restrictions -in response, Falun Gong mounted larger demonstrations and rallies -this prompted a swift crackdown by the regime, which labeled the sect an evil cult, banned the organization, and arrested some 5,000 practitioners -despite the persecution, Falun Gong still claims tens of millions of Chinese followers -the party-state's determination to squelch this social movement and to restrict the free-association of other independent religious groups deemed too large or too influential demonstrates both the extent of state paranoia and the persistent desire of many Chinese to give organizational expression to their social interests -the increasing complexity and openness of China's 21st century society almost guarantee that this cycle of subversive rebellion, state repression, and renewed social resistance will repeat itself -potentially even more destabilizing is China's floating population of migrant workers, predicted to hit 400 million by 2025 -China now boasts half a billion netizens, 900 million mobile phone subscribers, and 300 million bloggers -with their regular surfing of the Internet, they test the state's capacity to monitor their activity and censor politically dangerous resources
The Branches of Government
-although the national constitution designates China's unicameral legislature (NPC) as the highest organ of the state, all government organizations and bureaucratic ministries remain subservient to party oversight -day-to-day responsibilities are largely in the hands of the executive State Council's bodies
Foreign Relations and the World
-during much of their long history, the Chinese viewed themselves as economically and culturally superior to the rest of the world -post defeat of Japan in WWII, the victorious government sought to restore China's past grandeur -China's return to relative isolation reached its zenith during the Cultural Revolution -since Mao's death in 1976, China has steadily emerged from decades of isolation under the policy of reform and opening, U.S. President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972 marked the beginning of China's opening to the West and the reengagement with the rest of the world -today, China's position as the world's largest economy, its growing military might and technological prowess, and its status as a permanent member of UN Security Council make it an important international power -by far the most serious threat to China's peaceful rise is the potential conflict -by the far the most serious threat to China's peaceful rise is the potential conflict over the future of Taiwan, which located only 100 miles off the coast of the Chinese mainland -the CCP leadership has always regarded Taiwan as a province of China and therefore a "core interest" and has persistently demanded the full reintegration of Taiwan into the PRC -the Chinese have repeatedly claimed that they would view any declaration of independence of independence by Taiwan as an act of war -tensions have become more volatile since Taiwan democratizes in the late 1980s and since Taiwan's citizens have had more freedom to voice their preferences -despite the continued tension between Taiwan and China, however, Taiwan's trade and investment with China has grown rapidly in recent years and was normalized with the signing of a free-trade pact in 2010 -China is now Taiwan's largest trading partner and largest investment destination -in the 1980s, China and United Kingdom agreed to a plan that would return Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under the principle of one country, two systems -if ties between China and Taiwan have been warming, relations with neighboring Japan have not -bitter memories of Japan's brutal occupation of China during WWII have been exacerbated by a tense territorial standoff between the region's two dominant powers -has increased hostility with territorial disputes with Japan and in the South China Sea with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei -farther to the south, rivalry with India, with which China fought a border war in the early 1960s, has given way to recent agreements to resolve outstanding border disputes -China became India's trading partner in 2010 -India has recognized Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, but has also provided refuge for the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government -in 2001, China and Russia signed their first friendship treaty in 50 years -in 2008, the two countries resolved their final border disputes -China has also played an important role in the growing global concern about the nuclear capabilities of North Korea -nevertheless, since the end of the Cold War, China has been North Korea's only reliable ally and its chief source of economic aid -China must balance its relationship with this often prickly and unpredictable neighbor with its now-booming trade and investment ties with capitalist South Korea and its strong desire to maintain peace in the region -ever since President Nixon's, China's volatile relationship with the United States has been characterized by periodic tension and mistrust -since 9/11, security relations between the US and China have generally improved -China supported the US' war in Afghanistan and war on terrorism -with the Obama administration's shift to Asia in 2011, China viewed it as yet another American "encirclement" campaign designed to threaten and thwart legitimate Chinese interests -at the heart of Sino-US relations is the nearly $600 billion in two-way trade and the substantial direct investment ties that bind the two countries -this huge trade flow is immensely beneficial to both countries' economies, but it has been controversial in the United States -critics claim that China's currency has been artificially undervalued and its domestic market unfairly shielded from American imports
Political Economy
-from 1949-1978, China adopted a Soviet-style communist political economic model -Mao Zedong and the CCP leadership consciously opted for equality over freedom -they promised all Chinese an iron rice bowl and retained state ownership of all property and full control of the economy through central planning -this centrally planned political economic model favored the development of heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods -led to the creation of a massive state economic policy-making bureaucracy not present in capitalist political economies -despite the agrarian roots of the Chinese revolution, Mao and the CCP sought to rapidly industrialize China by launching a crash industrialization campaign (Great Leap Forward) -to pursue that goal, he favored the policy Red vs. expert -Mao promoted the creation of small-scale, labor-intensive industry in both cities and the countryside -GLF also collectivized agriculture by creating gigantic communes that became party-controlled providers of education, health care, public works, and industrial production -overall, GLF = a colossal failure -by the early 1960s, Mao had been marginalized from the realm of economic policy making, and most of his Great Leap policies had been abandoned -industries began to emphasize expertise over political correctness and material over moral incentives -in response to his own marginalization, Mao attacked these new policies as "capitalist" -he launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966 -the persecution unleashed targeted those with the most expertise, and the impact on the economy was devastating -the chaos of the Cultural Revolution left China a poor and isolated economy -things started to turn after the death of Mao in 1976 -under Deng Xiaoping, economic reform and opening began and the CCP shifted its focus to creating rapid economic growth -agricultural communes were disbanded and gradually replaced with the house-hold responsibility system -individual farmers still had to sell a set amount of their produce to the state, but they were free to sell any surplus on the open market -industries were decentralized; in their place "collective" and "town and village" enterprises were allowed greater economic freedom and encouraged to generate profits -by the mid-1980s, private industry was permitted and the state gradually eliminated price controls -hoping to end China's economic isolation, the government created special economic zones in 1979, offering tax breaks and other incentives to lure foreign investment to a handful of coastal enclaves -during the 1990s, China's reformers shifted their focus to the urban industrial sector and devolved substantial economic decision-making authority to provincial and local officials and private entrepreneurs -China's economy expanded nearly 10% annually for the first three decades of reform and opening, and its GDP has grown some 15-fold -hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, but China remains a poor country
