1. The Chinese State

2. Political Participation
Chinese citizens are subjects of the government, not participants in a political system
The CCP: Largest Political Party in the world (58 million)
Only 8% of the population are members
Members recruited from the CCP’s Youth League

3. Political Participation
Before 1976, cadres (permanent professional members of a communist party) led the CCP at all levels. (peasants/factory workers)
Today, technocrats (people with technical training, educated) control the CCP.
Less than 40% of party workers are peasants.
Women: 20% of the party and 4% of the Central Committee

4. Political Participation
Protest:
Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989 showed limits of protest in China.
Falon Gong: Religious groups protest and are persecuted
Villages: protests are common and labor strikes have been reported.

5. Civil Society New forms of associations:
Western-style discos/coffeehouses
Communications: Cell phones, internet, fax machines, TV satellite dishes (Difficult for the party-state to monitor citizens)
Environmental/AIDS/Legal Reform groups: don’t challenge the state
1990’s: NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) registered with the government
Existence of these groups represents a major change

6. Political Institutions
Authoritarian system: decisions made by the political elites
Leadership is recruited by the Communist Party
Personal relationships and informal ties are important in deciding who rules
How to effectively govern the huge expanse of land and population?

7. Political Institutions
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
Heart of political system
Society is best led by an elite vanguard party with a superior understanding of the people and their needs.

8. Political Institutions
The Organization of the CCP
Hierarchically by levels: village/township, county, province, nation.
At the top is the supreme leader, or general secretary.
The party has a separate constitution from the government’s

9. Political Institutions
CCP’s Central Bodies:
National Party Congress: delegates chosen from congresses at the lower level. Meets every 5 years, rubberstamps decisions made by the party leaders, and elects members to the…
Central Committee: 340 members meet annually for 1 week (plenums). Members are chosen for the…
Politburo/Standing Committee: Most powerful and at the top of the CCP structure. Politburo has 24 members and the Standing Committee has 9 members who are chosen from the Politburo. Meet in secret- membership reflects the balance of power among factions

10. Political Institutions
General Secretary
Standing Committee(9)
Politburo (24)
Secretariat
(7)
Central
Commission
For
Discipline
Inspection (11)
Central Committee
(371)
Central
Military
Commission
National
Party
Congress
(2,213)
Provincial, State, and Local
Party Congresses
Power to lead
Power to
elect/Appoint
Primary Party Organizations

11. Political Institutions
Elections
Held to legitimize the government and CCP.
Party controls the commissions that run elections
Reviews lists of proposed candidates
Only direct elections are held at the local level: voters choose deputies to the county people’s congresses
The people’s congresses at the higher level are chosen from the lower levels
Village level: some reform as local officials are chosen in direct, secret ballot elections.

12. Political Institutions
Guanxi, Factions and Political Elite
Guanxi: Personal connections that ties Chinese politics together. Chinese leaders communicate with one another through patron-client networks, or guanxi (good old boy network’s in the West)
Nomenklatura: China also uses this system to choose cadres from lower levels

13. Political Institutions
Factionalism: Strife apparent within the leadership and have split into 3 groups:
Conservatives: All factions support economic reform: This group believes the power of the party has eroded.

14. Political Institutions
Reformers/open door: Supports major capitalist infusion into the PRC’s economy and promotes an open door policy (pragmatic). Jiang Zemin, Zhu Ronghi, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, don’t support democratic reform
Liberals: Out of power since 1989, Tiananmen Square “incident”. Support economic and political reform. (Hu Yuobang-whose death sparked the 1989 democratic uprising- was the mentor of Hu Jintao)

15. Political Institutions
Corruption
Guanxi/economic boom = corruption
Hu has persecuted thousands of officials for incompetence and corruption within the party
The head of Beijing’s most powerful food and drug regulating agency was arrested, imprisoned, and then executed over the tainted food and drug scandal in 2007.

16. Political Institutions
Interest Groups
The party-state forms mass organizations or groups so that people may express their points of view, within strict limits.
Formed around occupations or social categories
Danwei, social units in urban areas that are placed in a person’s place of work. People depend on the units for their jobs, income, promotion, health care, housing, daycare and recreational facilities.

17. Political Institutions
By 2007, over 300,000 nongovernmental organizations
No impact on policymaking
China is an example of State Corporatism: the state determines which groups are brought in- the state must approve of your group.
The state allows only 1 organization for each profession or activity.
Easier for the state to monitor

18. Political Institutions
Institutions of Government
3 parallel hierarchies that are separate yet interact with one another
The Communist Party
The State or Government
The People’s Liberation Army
The party dominates and controls by the principle of dual role- vertical supervision of the next higher level of government and horizontal supervision of the CCP at their own level

19. Political Institutions: Parallel Hierarchies in China
Military Party Government
Central Military Com Standing Committee, Politburo President, PM, State Council
Ministry of State Central Committee Central Government,
Security, Ministry Ministries, Bureau
of Public Security,
People’s Armed
Police National Party Congress People’s National Congress
Provincial Party Congress Provincial People’s
and Committees Congresses
Local Level Party Local Level People’s
Organizations Congresses
Primary Party Village Councils
Organizations

20. Political Institutions
3 Branches of Government are controlled by the Party (no system of checks and balances) :
Legislative
Executive
Judicial

21. Political Institutions
The Legislative Branch: The People’s Congresses
People’s National Congress: The top level, elects the president and vice president. Politburo’s decisions are announced here.
Provincial People’s Congress
Local Level Congresses
Village Councils
In reality, the Congresses are subject to party control

22. Political Institutions
The Executive Branch
President and Vice President: 5 year terms, 2 term limits, 45 years old
Ceremonial: held by senior party members
Hu Jintao is President and General Secretary of the CCP
Premier: Head of Government, appointed by the president- always held by a member of the Standing Committee and directs the State Council or bureaucracy (Wen Jiabo)
Bureaucracy at all levels: Held by cadres, or people who are paid by the government or party
30 million cadres carry out policies

23. Political Institutions
The Judiciary
4 tiered “People’s Court” organized hierarchically just as the people’s congresses are.
People’s Procuratorate: Provides public prosecutors and defenders to the courts (new)
Reform is slowly taking place: Judges are trained and new law codes instituted
No judicial review/subservient to the party
Extensive use of the death penalty (human rights violations)

24. Political Institutions
“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
People’s Liberation Army: Ground, air, and naval armed forces
3 million acitve/12 million reserves (2.4 for every 1000 people-U.S. is 6.1)
Military spending is 4% of what U.S. spends (underestimated?)
Military has no formal political power
Central Military Commission: military representation in the government

25. Policymaking and Political Issues
“Black cat ,white cat, what does it matter as long as the cat catches mice?” Deng Xiaoping
Since 1978, policymaking was centered on centralizing political authority with marketization and privatization of the economy
Fang-shou- A letting go, tightening-up cycle (3 types of actions/policies: economic reform, democratic movements, tightening up)

26. Policymaking and Political Issues Fang-Shou in Modern China
Economic Program Democracy Movements CCP Response
Four Modernizations(78-85)
Democracy Wall Movement
( )
De-legalization
of protest (79-80)
Second Revolution
( ) Student Democracy
Protest ( )
Anti-Bourgeois
Liberalization(87)
Tiananmen Democracy(89)
Tiananmen Massacre
attacks/dissidents (89-now)
Falun Gong Demonstrations
(89-00)
Outlaw Falun Gong:
arrest/execute leaders

27. Policymaking and Political Issues
3 categories of policy issues: Democracy and human rights, economic policy, and foreign policy
Democracy and Human Rights: Reform- input from National People’s Congress, emphasis on laws and legal procedures (rule of law), village elections are semi-competitive

28. Policymaking and Political Issues
Economic issues: Command economy based on democratic centralism (Iron Rice Bowl = cradle to the grave). Deng- socialist market economy- gradual infusion of capitalism with state control
Agricultural Policy: The peoples communes or collective farms s replaced with the household responsibility system.
Private Business: Urban co-ops, service organizations, and rural industries. Private industry is strictly regulated. Township and village enterprises (TVE) collective enterprises (local government and entrepreneurs) has slowed the migration of peasants to the cities

29. Policymaking and Political Issues
Foreign policy and international trade issues:
Pre-1976: Support for 3rd world revolutionary movements
1950’s: Sino-Russo split
U.S./ Chinese relations: 1972 Nixon visits China-1978 Open Door Policy- Today huge trading partners
International Trade and Business: 4 Special Economic Zones (SEZs)- Growing GDP, entrepreneurship, wealthy class, member of the WTO, and “most favored nation status”.
Patron-client system or guanxi is alive and well in the business community!

30. Policymaking and Political Issues
Economic Problems:
Unemployment and inequality
Floating population- rural migrants seeking jobs in the cities
Inefficiency of the state sector
Pollution
Product Safety