An Authoritarian Regime

 Located on the eastern part of mainland Asia.  Shares borders with more than one dozen nations.  Bound by physical barriers; helpful in isolating aggressors.  Northeast is similar to U.S. plains states.  Southern China is semitropical.

Roughly 1.3 billion and growing. China makes up 20% of the world’s population, but only 10% of its arable land. (1.3 billion) China has more than 140 cities with a population of one million or more. Still 60% live in villages. By the 1970s China’s population was growing 2.8% a year. In the 80s a “One Child Policy” slowed the growth substantially. This hurt rural peasants who relied on family to work the fields (to.8%)

 China has roots that are 4,000 years old.  Empire was first centralized in 221 B.C.  Lasted for twenty centuries until  Strong central government with merit-based bureaucracy.  Urbanization started early (as told by Marco Polo of the 1400s.)  Majority of the people were poor peasants.

 Supported the traditional order in China.  Stressed importance of:  Deference to one’s elders  Strong family ties  Need to maintain social harmony  Focus on intellectuals leading the nation. “The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”

 Problems made the dynasty weak:  A population explosion  Corruption  Exploitation of peasants  Taiping rebellion ( ) which cost 20 million lives.  Revolution took place in 1911 led by Sun Yatsen.

Sun Yat-sen could not hold onto power and conflicts broke out among warlords. Largest opposition was the Chinese Communist party (CCP), formed in 1921, influenced by Russian Revolution. Chiang Kai-shek takes over the Nationalist Party of Sun in 1925 after his death and breaks all coalitions. He unified China under his personal rule. The Communist party went into exile.

In 1937 Japan invades China, pushing the Chiang government to the southwestern part of China. The Communists fight the Japanese with Russian support. After World War, civil war resumed until a Communist government was established in 1949, created the People’s Republic of China. The Nationalist government was exiled to Taiwan.

Influenced heavily by Stalin. Instituted a Five Year Plan in 1953 and had some success industrializing China. Collectivization of farms was less successful. Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957—punished those who were counter-revolutionaries. Great Leap Forward of 1957—irrational, wasted resources on programs like steel ovens for village steel production. Claimed 30 million lives. Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ( )—Red Guards tortured and killed “enemies.”

Came to power in (second generation) “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice.” What does he mean? His reforms greatly reduced the role of the government in economics, allowing supply and demand to set prices. He called it a “ socialist market economy.” The market remains subordinate to government planning and CCP leadership. In 1980 State owned enterprises controlled 80% of business. Now it is less than 17%.

 Household responsibility System– farmland is contracted out to individual families.  More important, the township and village enterprises (TVEs), are owned by local governments and private entrepreneurs. They make their own decisions about all aspects of the business process. There are 20 million TVEs employing 130 million people in China.

Decentralization of economic decisions means more power for local governments. There is a wider gap between rich and poor, and between rural and urban. The “iron rice bowl” (social welfare guarantees) has been compromised; things are now more tied to individual effort. This has raised urban unemployment; but made people work harder. Now less than one-quarter of the urban population and 10% of rural people have health insurance. Gender inequalities have also increased.

In 1980s China took advantage of their low-wage domestic labor to produce goods that were in demand internationally. By 2004 China was the world’s third largest trading nation, with imports and exports totaling $1.1 trillion. The United States has become one of the PRC’s major trading partners. China is the largest absorber of foreign direct investment. (Coca-Cola, General Motors, Starbucks, McDonald’s) China has been admitted into the World Trade Organization, in Where does China stand today?

 “The force at the core leading our cuase forward is the Chinese Communist Party.” -Mao  The Communist party exercises direct or indirect control over all government organizations and personnel.  Even reformers like Deng Xiaoping did not digress from this idea.  The government acts as the agency for carrying out and enforcing policies made by the party.  Even the constitution is less a governing document than it is a political statement.

 PRC executive consists of both a premier (prime minister) and a president.  Li Keqiang is the current premier.  Xi Jinping is the president  (The Communist Party (CCP) is headed by a general secretary.) Xi Jinping is also the General Secretary.  There is no alternation of parties in China.  Real executive power, therefore, lies with the top leaders of the CCP.

National Party Congress : the legislature and also on paper “the highest leading body” of the party. The role of the Congress is largely symbolic. The Central Committee – has 198 full and 158 alternate members. Elected by ballot; little choice, but promoting younger, better-educated leaders. Its job is to direct party affairs, but it meets infrequently. The Politburo has twenty-four members, nine of whom make up the Standing Committee, the formal apex of power in the CCP. These bodies do not answer to the Central Committee or the Congress.

Formally organized through a vast system of people’s congresses, with the National People’s Congress at the top down to rural township congresses. The Congress elects the president and vice president; the president appoints the premier with the Congresses approval. The president meets with other world leaders, but the position is largely ceremonial. The premier is head of government and has the authority over the bureaucracy and policy implementation. In reality, government executives are subject to party not legislative authority.

The State Council is a body that acts like a Cabinet. In 2003 the ministries it led was cut to 28. China has a huge bureaucracy—people who work for the government (cadres) number 40 million. China’s People’s Liberation Army is the world’s largest military force. It is controlled by the party and the Central Military Commission, headed normally by the most powerful party leader. Judicial branch has four tiers ending in the Supreme People’s Court (followed by the higher, intermediate, and grassroots courts.) Courts can provide “a real avenue for redress to the public for loss of property, consumer fraud, and even unjust detention by the police.” China’s criminal system works swiftly and harshly. There is a conviction rate of 98%.

Legislature: China’s Congress has the power to enact and amend the country’s laws and approve and monitor the state budget, and declare and end war. These powers can only be exercised with the approval of the Communist party. The National People’s Congress is unicameral; it is elected for five year terms and meets annually for two weeks in March. It is made up of sometimes more than 3,000 deputies and is chosen on a geographic basis. Because of economic reform, the NPC plays a larger role in the Chinese political system.

Chinese Communist Party has 70 million members, and thus is the largest political party in the world. All types of people, even private entrepreneurs are members. Women make up less than 20% of the members. 70 million people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight make up the Communist Youth league. Non-communist parties: all founded before the CCP came to power; have less than 500,000 members total. They voice their views once a year at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), under the watch of the Communist party.

 Most elections in China are indirect. For example, provincial representatives to the NPC are elected by deputies who are serving in the provincial level people’s congress.  Direct elections are most common at the village level.  All are mechanisms to give the communist party-state greater legitimacy.

Most citizens of China are dismissive or skeptical of communist ideology. Only 8.5 % of the people in China come from minority ethnic groups. (Non- Han) There have been no large scale political demonstrations in China since 1989; prodemocracy groups have been driven away or underground. Known dissidents are watched, harassed, and imprisoned. Ethnic protests are more likely, as are peasant protests against local leaders.

Negative: China has a long history of bureaucratic and authoritarian rule. Negative: Confucian teaching supports authoritarian rule. Negative: the power of the Communist party is still strong. Positive: Taiwan has been a success; not incompatible with a Confucian teaching. Positive: China has a higher literacy rate, more extensive industrialization and urbanization, a faster rate of economic growth, and a larger middle class than most nations at its level of economic development. Postive: decentralization of political and economic power to local governments; younger better educated leaders; increasing role of the National People’s Congress.

Not in the near future