1. Birth of the PRC Order-Chaos Fulfilled? New Ideology Mao Dynasty?
Nationalism legitimizes the Communists
October 1, 1949

2. CPC Ideology Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
The Communist Manifesto 1848
Basics: Capitalism is exploitation
Rich exploit poor
Government enforces exploitation
Worker’s revolution
Communism phase begins:
End private property;
create collective ownership 2 2

3. Mao Zedong Thought Vanguard Peasant revolution The Mass Line
Campaigns
Revolutionary Struggle

4. Bottom Line Communist Party is in Power No Challenges allowed
Mao Zedong Deng Xiaoping Xi Jinping

5. Leadership and Decision Making
Government Structure
Party Structure
Leadership and Decision Making
Report on Chinese Political System
(US Congress)

6. To Study Chinese Government (Under Mao and Still Today)
Dual Structure: Government and Party
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping
President of China General Secretary of CPC
There are two nation-wide bureaucracies: the party and the government. The Party role is what matters. Xi is President of the nation because he is General Secretary of the Party. Party membership and position establishes your power. Your government role gives you additional levers of power and additional prestige. You’ll notice that the senior members of the Party have the top positions in government.

7. To Study Chinese Government (Under Mao and Still Today)
2. Factionalism, Personal Rivalries
1980s Factional Struggle
Zhao Ziyang Li Peng
Factional battles between individuals and wings of the party decide what policies the party and government develop. Every debate is a factional battle. The events of Tiananmen Square in 1989 were settled through a factional battle. The faction leaders were Zhao (#1 in the Party) and Li (#2 in the Party). We’ll do the details of this later. These factions are partly personal, party ideological, and extend from the party center to the local level based on patronage and mentor-protégé relationships.

8. To Study Chinese Government (Under Mao and Still Today)
President
Vice Premier
Premier
3. Formal vs. Informal

9. Government Structure Formal Government: Constitution
Standing Comm.
The Cabinet ;
Headed by Premier; State Council Center
Controls Ministries, Commissions,
Institutions, Working Organs Standing Comm. of NPC
National People’s Congress
smaller committees Province small committees
large committees
smaller committees County small committees
smaller committees City small committees
smaller committees small committees
Work Unit large committees
Notice the structure. At every administrative level there are three levels of committees. In theory, the large committee meets rarely, the small committee meets more frequently, and the smaller committee meets the most often. In theory the large committee “elects” members to be on the small committee and the small committee “elects” members to be on the smaller committee. Then the smaller committee “elects” members to represent that administrative level in the large committee of the next highest administrative level. So members of the smaller committee at the City level would “elect” people to represent the city at the county level large committee. This process goes all the way to the very top.
Notice I put “elect” in quotes. That’s because these aren’t elections. The nominees for all these positions come from the Party and typically if there are 2,000 delegates for one of the large committees, the “election” will allow members to “choose” between 2,003 candidates. These are appointed and controlled positions. Some real elections have been taking place at the Village level in recent years. We’ll get to that later.
The decision over who gets nominated by the Party for all these positions is where a lot of the factional battles take place.
The National People’s Congress is the legislature. It is only a rubber stamp of decisions made at the top. It meets every year in March for a large session and the Standing Committee of the NPC will meet several times a year to rubber stamp important issues.
The State Council is the cabinet of the government. The Standing Committee of the Cabinet is the smaller group that meets more often.
The Premier heads it. He is typically the #2 in the Party.
Work Unit: This is the real level of control for the Party and Government. Everyone in society was in a work unit under Mao ( ). It was the bottom level organization in the nation. It may have exited in the factory or in the agricultural commune or at school ( a classroom might be a work unit). The work unit provides you access to housing, to health care, to education, to a pension, to coupons for food, to license to marriage, to permission to have children, to permission to actually have a job. This is how the Party controlled hundreds of millions of people.

10. Communist Party Structure
Formal CPC Structure: Constitution of CPC
General Secretary Politburo Standing Comm. (7-9 members)
of the CCP ;
Party Secretariat Politburo Central Military Commission
Central Committee
Central Committee PLA
Departments National Party Congress
smaller committees Province small committees
large committees
smaller committees County small committees
smaller committees City small committees
smaller committees small committees
Work Unit large committees
Same here for the committee structure and “elections.”
What’s new here:
National Party Congress: meets very five years, in theory to chart the course of the Party and elect a new crop of leaders. The next few slides give you some info on the Party leaders. Really it works the other way around. The top leaders (top 25 or so) wrestle politically to decide who will stay at the top and what lower level people will move to the top as the older leaders retire. The top will choose the members of the Party Congress (and members of lower level Party committees), and the Central Committee. It will also decide the policies of the Party.
The real power is in the Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee (PSC). The 25 or so members of the Politburo are the top leaders of the Party. They set policy. The Politburo Standing Committee is the apex of power, the seven men who rule China (no women need apply so far). They are ranked #1 through #7. The membership is changed slightly every Party Congress. Generally, the Politburo, elders, and some additional key leaders gather together at a resort in advance of the party Congress and dual it out (arguing only today; no one dies). They decide how to adjust the membership of the Politburo and PSC. When they are done, they are ranked and they decide any policy changes and then when the Party Congress begins, the new PSC walks out onto the stage in order #1-#7 to thunderous applause.
In the old days, Mao dominated. Today, there really is consensus decision making. For example, in 2002 before the 18th Party Congress, the factional battles were so intense the Party Congress was delayed. Reportedly, the factions couldn’t agree on seven people fro the PSC. No one died. No one was arrested. The Congress was delayed from September to November and the decision was made to expand the PSC from 7 to 9 members. This is very different from the Mao era.

11. 15th Party Congress 1997 Politburo Standing Committee
3rd Generation
General Secretary Jiang Zemin (President)
Li Peng (Chair NPC)
Zhu Rongji (Premier)
Li Ruihuan
Hu Jintao,
Wei Jianxing
Li Langing
Jiang

12. 4th Generation PSC 2002-2012 16th Party Congress 2002
General Secretary Hu Jintao (President)
Wu Bangguo (Chair NPC)
Wen Jiabao (Premier)
Jia Qinglin
Zeng Qinghong
Huang Ju
Wu Guanzheng
Li Changchun
Luo Gan
Hu Jintao
Wu Bangguo
Wen Jiabao
Jia Qinglin
Li Changchun
Xi Jinping*
Li Keqiang*
He Guoqiang
Zhou Yongkang

13. 4th Generation to 5th Generation PSC
18th Party Congress 2012
4th Generation
17th Party Congress 2007
Hu Jintao
Wu Bangguo
Wen Jiabao
Jia Qinglin
Li Changchun
Xi Jinping*
Li Keqiang*
He Guoqiang
Zhou Yongkang
Xi Jinping
Li Keqiang
Zhang Dejiang
Yu Zhengsheng
Liu Yunshan
Wang Qishan
Zhang Gaoli

14. 5th Generation Leadership 18th to 19th Party Congress PSC
Xi Jinping (President)
Li Keqiang (Premier)
Zhang Dejiang (Chair, NPC)
Yu Zhengsheng
Liu Yunshan
Wang Qishan
Zhang Gaoli (Vice Premier)
Xi Jinping (President)
Li Keqiang (Premier)
Li Zhanshu (Xi’s Chief of Staff)
Wang Yang (Vice Premier)
Wang Huning
Zhao Leji
Han Zheng

15. Other Aspects of Government and Party
Judiciary (Supreme People’s Court)
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
Ministry of State Security
intelligence
Ministry of Public Security
police

16. Factional Political Debates
Mao Era: The pace of revolution
Reform Era: The pace of reform
Always: Personalities and Loyalties

17. Factional Political Conflict
Mao Era ( ): Mao Wins
Marshal Peng Dehuai Prisoner Peng Dehuai

18. Factional Political Conflict
Reform Era:
Debate: Intra-Party Democracy,
Decision: Democratic Centralism
Tiananmen Square: Factional Battle 1989
Zhao Ziyang – Out Jiang Zemin - In

19. Factional Political Conflict
Xi Jinping Era (2012--

20. Decision Making Party, Government, Factionalism
How are Decisions Made?
Guidance: Leading Small Groups