CHINA Part 1: The Making of the Modern State “Let China sleep. For when China wakes, it will shake the world.” --Napoleon

Why do we study China?  Unique history greatly shapes political culture  One of the few remaining communist nations  Successful move towards capitalism BUT remains highly authoritarian  Questions to ponder…  Will democratization follow economic reform success?  Will human rights violations keep China from global partnerships?  What type of change (if any) will Xi Jinping bring?

Geography Basics  Officially, the People’s Republic of China (PRC)  4 th largest country  9,596,961 sq mi  Less than 15% of land good for agriculture  Largest population  1.3 billion  *23 provinces  5 autonomous regions  4 centrally administered cities  2 Special Administrative Regions (SAR)

Critical Junctures: Confucius  Imperial China (2000 years) & Confucianism  Harmony, order, and peace  Five duties of universal obligation or basic human relations  Obedience to Authority, Hierarchy, Meritocracy  Civil service was created  Had to pass exams based on Confucian ethics  Ethnocentrism

Critical Junctures: Confucius  Discussion Question: What elements of Confucianism do you think can be found in modern Chinese political culture?

Critical Junctures: Confucius  Discussion Question: What elements of Confucianism do you think can be found in modern Chinese political culture?  Obedience to authority – acceptance of authoritarian rule  Hierarchy – structure of the CCP

Critical Junctures: The Republic of China  : Century of Humiliation  Economic stagnation/poverty  Increased pressure from the outside/imperialism  Dynastic rule ends  Nationalism rises!  Revolution! ( ) Establishes Republic of China  Sun Yat-sen became President  Believed in nationalism, democracy, & social welfare  Could not hold power  Warlords rule Sun Yat-sen Father of the Republic Father of the Revolution

Critical Junctures: The Republic of China  1911 – 1949 Two political forces vie for power:  The Nationalist Party (KMT)  Led by Sun Yat-Sen  Focused on resisting foreign influence  Favored modernization and reform  Eventually led by Chiang Kai-Shek  Chinese Communist Party (CCP, founded 1921)  Led by Mao Zedong  By 1928, the CCP was forced West out of the cities and into the countryside Chiang Kai-Shek Leader of Nationalist Party

Critical Junctures: The People’s Republic of China  : The Long March  Mao & supporters flee from Nationalist forces & gain support in the countryside (Mao becomes a hero to peasant class)  : World War II  Communists more successful against Japan  1949: The People’s Liberation Army marches into Beijing unopposed, establishing the People’s Republic of China (PRC)  The Nationalists fled to Taiwan, where they established the Republic of China (ROC)  (international community does not recognize PRC until 1970s!)

Critical Junctures: Maoism  Maoism – form of communism that believed in the strength of the peasant  Key Values:  Collectivism  Struggle and Activism  Egalitarianism  Self-Reliance  Mass Line: leaders would communicate their will/direction to people, but people would communicate through mass line their wisdoms to leaders

Critical Junctures: Maoism  The Soviet Model ( ):  Land Reform  Redistributed property from rich to poor and increased productivity in countryside  Civil Reform  Free people from Opium addiction  Enhanced women’s legal rights  Five-Year Plans  Nationalized industry  Collectivized agriculture  Private property eliminated

Critical Junctures: Maoism  Discussion Question: Compare how the Communist Party came to power in China with how it came to power in Russia – how was it different?  How was Maoism similar to Marxist-Leninism in the Soviet Union? Different?

Critical Junctures: Maoism  Discussion Question: Compare how the Communist Party came to power in China with how it came to power in Russia – how was it different?  China: Communists won popular support by defeating Japan in WWII and then defeating the Nationalists in a civil war. Then they established a communist state, the PRC, which replaced the republic of 1911  Russia: Bolsheviks led a communist revolution & overthrew the czar  How was Maoism similar to Marxist-Leninism in the Soviet Union? Different?  Similar: Democratic Centralism (Communist Party best directs needs of the masses); collectivization; nationalized industry  Different: Mao valued strength of peasant, instituted mass line

Critical Junctures: Maoism  The Great Leap Forward ( )  Wanted to free China from Soviet domination  Utopian effort to transform China into a radical egalitarian society  Reorganizes China into communes that would serve all basic social and economic functions  (all around development – equal emphasis on industry AND agriculture)  Backyard furnaces  Mass Mobilization (turn #s into asset)  Red vs. Expert  Failure - Famine

Critical Junctures: Maoism  The Cultural Revolution ( )  Goal – remove all vestiges of “old” China and its inequality  Scholars sent to fields to work  Universities/libraries destroyed  Emphasis on elementary education only  Student radicals (Red Guard) lead a purging of “class enemies”

Critical Junctures: Maoism  1976: Mao dies leaving followers divided into factions  Radicals – led by Mao’s wife  One of the “Gang of Four” who supported radical goals of cultural revolution  Military  Moderates – moderates who emphasized economic modernization and some contact with other other countries  Moderates win and arrest Gang of Four  Crash Course World History – China’s Revolutions Crash Course World History – China’s Revolutions

CHINA Part 2: Governance and Policymaking It’s all about the PARTY!

The Basics  Authoritarian/ Single Party Communist Rule  Officially “A socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship”  Unitary  Electoral System: N/A Controlled by CCP  Constitution: Established in 1982  Current Head of Party and State: President Xi Jinping  Head of Government: Premier Li Kequiang  Legislature: Unicameral (Rubber Stamp)  Judiciary: Not independent, no judicial review

Parallel Hierarchies  The political structure of the People’s Republic of China can best be seen as 3 parallel hierarchies:  The Communist Party  The state or government  The People’s Liberation Army (PLA)  Separate but interact  The CCP dominates

Provincial People’s Congresses Three Political Structures The State/Government Military President/VP Premier (PM) Central Military Commission Ministry of State Security Ministry of Public Security, People’s Armed Police Provincial Party Congresses/Committees National Party Congress Communist Party General Secretary Standing Committee Politburo Central Committee Local Level Party Organizations Primary Party Organizations State Council Central Govt Ministries, Bureaus National People’s Congress Local Level People’s Congresses Village Councils

The Chinese Communist Party - CCP  Democratic Centralism  Society is best led by an elite vanguard party with a superior understanding of the Chinese people and their needs  Hierarchical structure  Village/township  County  Province  Nation  Head of the party is General Secretary

The Chinese Communist Party - CCP  National Party Congress  More than 2000 delegates  Meets every 5 years  Rubberstamps decisions made by party leaders  Elects members of Central Committee  Central Committee  About 340 members  Elected for 5 year term by National Party Congress  Secret ballot/candidates limited  Meets annually (plenums)  Carries out business of National Party Congress between sessions

The Chinese Communist Party - CCP  Politburo  Chosen by Central Committee  Dictates government policies  Meets in secret  About 25 members  Standing Committee  Most powerful political organization in China!  Elite of the elite (7 members), chosen by Politburo  Membership is mirror of faction influence  General Secretary is chosen from the Standing Committee  Head of the CCP  Recent Secretaries have been educated (technocrats)

Factionalism  Guanxi (“connections”)  Chinese term that means “connections” or “relationships”  Describes personal ties between individuals based on such things as common birthplace or mutual acquaintances  Key to getting things done (cut red tape), but can feed corruption  Factions  Conservatives (hard-liners)  Reformers/open door  Liberals (out of power since 1989)  Princelings: aristocracy of families with revolutionary credentials from days of Mao (Xi Jingping)  Shanghai Gang – associates of former leader Jiang Zemin - emphasis on guanxi  Chinese Communist Youth League (Hu Jintao)

Conclusion  Discussion Question: Why is the possibility for corruption great under the PRC’s system of governing?

Conclusion  Lack of transparency (secret ballots/meetings)  Lack of accountability (no checks on PRC’s power)  Existence of guanxi

The State/Government  3 branches BUT all branches controlled by party  Not independent  No checks/balances

The Executive  Head of State  President  Serve 5 year terms, limited to 2  At least 45 years old (same for VP)  Senior Party Leaders  Recently General Secretary and President are the SAME  Head of Government (Le Keqiang)  Premier (like a PM)  Formally appointed by Pres, but always from Standing Committee  Directs the State Council (like a cabinet)  Made up of ministers who direct bureaucracy

The Bureaucracy  Exists on all levels  Immense in size and scope  Made up of cadres – 30 million!  Person who exercises a position of authority in communist govt  May or may not be Party members  Most must now retire between ages of  Dual Role  Supervised higher bodies in govt and comparable bodies in CCP  Cadre List (nomenklatura)

The Legislature  National People’s Congress  “Formal” authority of government to rule on people’s behalf  Meets once a year in March for two weeks  3,000 members – “deputies”, 5 year terms  Chosen from lower people’s congresses  Chooses President/VP – but only one candidate for each  Has little power, but announces Politburo’s policies

The Judiciary  Peoples Court System  Peoples Procuratorate – supplies lawyers  No rule of law under Mao, but acknowledged today  Business liberalization has demanded it  Party uses system as a weapon  Criminal Justice system works quickly and harshly – 99% conviction rate  World leader in use of death penalty

The People’s Liberation Army  Discussion Question: Read the following quote and explain its meaning in terms of power in China.  “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the party commands the gun and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” – Mao Zedong

The People’s Liberation Army  Discussion Question: Read the following quote and explain its meaning in terms of power in China.  “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the party commands the gun and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” – Mao Zedong  The CCP controls the military, and will use the power of the military to stay in power. The military should never have more power than the CCP.

The People’s Liberation Army  World’s largest military force – 2.3 million active personnel  Includes all ground, air and naval armed forces  Key organization is Central Military Commission (CMC)  12 members: 10 of highest ranking officers of PLA + Pres/GS (chair) and /VP  Chair is commander-in-chief and has always been highest ranking party member

CHINA Part 3: Citizens, Society & the State It’s all about NOT challenging the Party/State!

Cleavages - Ethnic  Ethnic population is primarily Han Chinese (92%)  Minority ethnic groups = 8% of pop (abt 100 million citizens)  55 officially recognized minority groups  Most live on/near borders with other countries  Most live autonomous regions  Govt policy: encourage economic development/suppress dissent  Tibetans/Dalai Lama  (see student presentation)  Uyghurs  Muslims of Turkish descent living in Xinjiang  Militants want separate Islamic state

Cleavages – Urban/Rural  Economic growth has led to “Two Chinas”  Urban (52.6% of pop, higher incomes, education, social class)  2011 – 1 st time urban population was great than rural population  Increasing inequality

Cleavages – Urban/Rural Facts China only had 172 million urban residents in 1978 (when Deng Xiaoping started economic reform). By 2006, this number mushroomed to 577 million urbanites. Between 1990 and 2005, an estimated 103 million Chinese people migrated from rural to urban areas. By 2015, China’s urban population is expected to exceed 700 million In 2010, China’s rural per capita net income ($758 a year) was less than a third of its urban equivalent—the worst showing since China’s market reforms began in 1978 Nearly 500 million Chinese people live on less than $2 a day. 85% of China’s poor live in rural areas, with about 66% concentrated in the country’s west Almost half of China’s population lives in rural areas…but they share less than 12% of the country’s wealth. China’s poverty among ethnic minorities is two to three times higher than among the Han Chinese China currently has about 145 million migrant workers (or about 11 percent of China’s total population in 2010)…larger than the entire workforce of the United States. 225 million rural-born migrant workers—one fifth of China’s population—work in urban areas but are denied benefits enjoyed by city dwellers, which has resulted in “a metastasizing underclass of rural migrants living as second-class citizens in China’s cities…the divide has sparked anger among the rural poor.”

Political Participation  Discussion Question: Describe three different forms of political participation in authoritarian systems.

Political Participation  Discussion Question: Describe three different forms of political participation in authoritarian systems.  Joining political parties, standing for office  Voting  Protests/demonstrations  Civil disobedience  Coups d’etat, revolutions, political violence  Joining interest groups, NGOs, Citizens policy meetings (mass line)

Political Participation – Political Parties  CCP and Participation  Largest political party in world  Only 8% of citizens age 18+ are members  2001 – capitalists allowed to become members  CCP’s Youth League  More than 75 million members  CCP allows existence of eight “democratic” parties  Each party has special group it draws from (intellectuals, etc)  Tightly controlled by CCP  Advisory role only

Political Participation – Elections  PRC holds elections to legitimize govt and CCP  Party controls the commissions that run elections and approves lists of candidates  Direct elections held at the local level only  Voters choose deputies to serve on county people’s congresses  Since 1980s CCP has allowed more than one candidate to run for county positions  Move toward democracy at village level  Local officials are no longer appointed from above, but are chosen in direct, secret ballot elections

Political Participation – Interest Groups & Social Control  Organized interest groups/social movements are not permitted unless under party-state authority  State corporatism  Party-state forms mass organizations  People express view within strict limits  Form around occupations and social categories  Ex: Most factory workers belong to the All- China Federation of Trade Unions; Women’s interests represented in All-China’s Women’s Federation  Urban areas party maintains social control through danwei  Social units based on person’s place of work

Political Participation – Civil Society  Non-existent under Mao  Private organizations growing in recent years  Focus on social issues that do not directly challenge authority of state  1990s NGOs could register with govt  China has thousands (ping pong clubs, environmentalist groups)  Christianity and Buddhism rebounding  Govt keeps close control on these groups  Esp Falun Gong

Political Participation – Protests  Few since 1989 Tiananmen massacre  Falon Gong (see student presentation)  Labor unrest  Mostly at village level Protests in Autonomous Regions:  Tibet  Riots/demonstrations in Lhasa in March 2008 (49 th anniversary of failed uprising against China in 1959); Continued with 2008 Olympics  Xinjiang  2009 – riots sparked by Uyghur dissatisfaction with Chinese gov’t handling of the deaths of 2 Uyghur workers during previous disruptions

Media  Most are state-run and controlled  Some independent media today  Investigative reporting has had the most growth –but in limited scope – ex. Corruption  Xinhua is the official state press agency  All are subject to heave censorship by the state  Internet is strictly controlled