China: Background Notes

• Population 1.2 billion• Size 3,705,386 sq.mi.• Head of CCP – Hu Jintao• Head of State: President Hu

Jintao• Premier: Wen Jiabao• http://www.canoe.ca/

CNEWS/World/2003/03/05/36667-ap.html

• Religion: Daoism, Buddhism, Muslim, Christian

China: Governmental Issues• Communist party-led state• PRC est. 1949• Branches:

– Executive: President/Vice President; State Council, Premier

– Legislative: unicameral National People’s Congress

– Judicial: Supreme People’s Court

• Parties: CCP– 58 million members

• Administrative divisions: 23 provinces (Taiwan), 5 autonomous regions, 4 cities directly under State Councilhttp://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.ht

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China: Critical Events• 1958 Great Leap Forward

– New economic program– Goal to rapidly increase industrial capacity– Disrupted normal market mechanisms, exhaustion and

famine resulted

• 1966 Cultural Revolution– Break with soviets final– 1960s Deng leads pragmatic shift in economic policy– CR Mao’s retaliation – one side of communist leadership

against another– 10 years of political instability

• 1971 attempted coup against Mao• 1975 Deng Xiaopping reinstated

End of Maoist Era

• Pragmatists versus Radicals continue their struggle

• 1975 Jiang Qing & 3 Cultural Revolution associates continue the attack against Deng

• 1976 Deng removed of power

• 1976 Mao dies

• Gang of Four arrested; Deng reinstated

Pragmatism to Student Revolution

• 1978 transition from command to capitalist economy official goal of the state

• Reform policies increase standard of living• Literature and arts emerge• Political dissent & social problems emerge• 1986 student protests at slow pace of reform• Confirms leadership concerns of social

destabilization

1989

• Late 1980s – inflation• Hu Yaobang – advocate of reform – dies 89.• Disaffected urban population camps in

Tiananmen Square to mourn & protest publicly.

• Protest spreads to other cities.• May 20, 1989 Martial law declared.• July 3-4, 1989 Military clears the square.

Chinese Political Culture: The Rule of Law

• “rule of law” associated with democracy• Implies a neutral relationship between

individual and state• Communist ideology does views neither

law nor state as neutral actors• Law viewed as a weapon of the state • Chinese leaders have never acknowledged

rule of law as a legitimate view

“Rule by Law”

• New Chinese legality• There are laws and all are equally subject to them• A depoliticized view of law• Since 1982 (year of current constitution) more

than 300 laws and regulations have been promulgated

• Mediation committees to resolve disputes• Legal reform priority of the 1990s

Political Culture, Citizenship and Identity

• 1949-present political culture based in the Communist ideal

• State led efforts to make behavior conform to Marxist-Leninist-Mao Zedong thought

• Ideology has faced crises• 1978 Maoist era over• Deng Thought

– Rationale for combination of economic change and political repression

Political Culture: Sources and Contradictions

• Contemporary Chinese inheritors of several very different regimes:– Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)– Warlord interregnum (1911-1927)– Nationalist rule of Kuomintang (1927-1949)– Communism under Mao (1949-1976)– Deng reforms and new economy (1976-present)

Change within Repetition

• “Change within repetition”• For generations “reformers” have come to power

promising transition to a more egalitarian political system– Qing dynasty – traditional China governed by emperor

and bureaucracy of scholar-officials selected by knowledge of Confucian classics

– Confucianism provided common understanding of a hierarchy of ordered relationships in harmony (natural order) with emperor at top. Blurred distinction between state and society

Change within Repetition

• Qing discredited by “invasion” of Great Britain.• Warlords unable to restore order (1911-27).• Nationalists emerge – supported by landlord class and

urban dwellers – brief unification with Communists to unify nation.

• When this goal is mostly accomplished Nationalists turn on Communists killing thousands.

• New Civil War erupts 1949 Nationalists retreat to Taiwan.

Change within Repetition• Chinese Communist Party leadership• Leadership of constant change under Mao

– Relationship with Soviets becomes strained (1956)

– Great Leap Forward (1958)

– Cultural Revolution (1966)• Attack on new elites created as part of government

• Comparison to Soviets?

– Deng Thought• Economic transition

• 2000s implications? – a moneyed class – problem with elites

Threats to Regime?

– “invasion” of Great Britain (1911 end of Qing dynasty)

– Ending relationship with Soviet Union?– Great Leap Forward (1958)– Cultural Revolution (1966)

Deng Thought: Communism to Consumerism

• Deng Thought– Combination of economic change and political

repression– Socialization via schools without overt teaching

of politics– True political discourse limited– CCP increasingly estranged from society

Socializing goals of the State

• Inspirational revolutionary goals gone• Replaced with private entrepreneurship

– Individual prosperity and material incentives

• Process is less intrusive– Part of the policy to promote economic liberalization

– Too difficult to control information

– Persecution of scholars resulted in inferior academic products – this has ceased, economic modernization requires experts and respect for expertise

Political Participation

• Relationship between leaders and citizens means processes of Participation, Articulation, and Aggregation are different

• Relationship of guardianship between state and citizens (patriarchal)

• Interest groups rejected because state “represents” the interests of all citizens

• Political participation hierarchically ordered

Interest Articulation and Aggregation

• Articulation without aggregation

• Form of personal contacting

• In the workplace

• Traditional aggregation – demands combined into policy proposals – difficult in China because of limits on organizations and parties (8)

New Political Participation

• Participation requires social stability, economic order, and adjustments in political relationships to accommodate economic growth– Participation no longer “required”

– Avoidance of the mass to realize policy goals

– Rejection of mass mobilization as mode of political participation

– Village elections – grassroots democracy with parallel party structures ?????

Policy Challenges• One country, two systems:

– Hong Kong 1997

• One child family policy:– urban/rural enforcement problems, – Abortion as policy failure without disincentive.– Male/female ratio & disappeared girls (1979-82 – 3%; 1988-90

6%).

• Village committees• Taiwan

– 1971 lost membership in UN– US “Two Chinas” policy– Only 30 countries recognize– 1980s democratization

Chinese Government - PRC• Dual Executive: President (5 year term, 2 term limit) and

Premier (appointed by president with approval of NPC)– Vice President and Four Vice Premiers– Central Military Commission - Chairman

• Legislature: National People’s Congress http://www.npcnews.com.cn/

– Leadership comprised of five State Councilors, 27 Ministerial positions

– Elects the President and Vice-President of the PRC– Meets two years (at least once each five)– Members serve five year terms

Chinese Governmental and Party transition

• Jiang Zemin head of CCP and President of China steps down at end of 2002

• Hu Jintao his successor as head of CCP and expected to be “elected” president of China at 2003 meeting of the National People’s Congress.

• Zhu Rongji, Premier or Prime Minister (1998-2003)

• Replacement is Wen Jiabao (2003-?)

Chinese Party/Political Structures

• President (2, 5 year terms)• Vice President (both

elected by NPC)• Premier (Prime minister)

– Selected by President with approval by NPC

• State Council (cabinet)• National Peoples

Congress (2,900)• People’s Congresses down

all administrative units

• General Secretary• Secretariat (6)• Standing Committee

of the Politburo (5-9)• Politburo (11-30)• Central Committee

(300)• National Party

Congress (2,000)

Ethnicity in China

• Racial homogeneity with important ethnic, linguistic differences

• Tibet, Griangzi, Inner Mongolia, Ninglia, Xinjiang – 5 autonomous regions– 90 million non-Chinese concentrated in these

regions– Constitute 9% of total population

Three Gorges Dam

• The largest hydroelectric project in the world

• China has used the Yangtze River as its central highway.

• The River runs through the heart of the country

• River is 3700 miles long, the world’s third longest river.

• Millions of people lived, used for transport.

Dam Costs and Construction• Work began in 1994, initial

dam use began in 2003, completion estimated by 2009.

• Cost estimates range from $17 billion up to $100 billion.

• Chinese officials claim the dam will control the unpredictable river which frequently floods and kills thousands of people.

• The project will generate 1/9th of China’s power.

Dam Costs and Construction• One hundred forty towns

lie in the path of the lake it is forming (1.9 million displaced).

• The towns, along with 300 villages and a large amount of farmland, will be underwater.

• The lake will stretch for about 350 miles, the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles

http://www.irn.org/programs/threeg/

Environmental Opposition• Chinese leadership: project

represents modernization; a symbol of China’s planning and engineering strength.

• Environmentalists claimed a potential disaster because there were limited efforts to remove accumulations of toxic materials & other pollutants from the industrial sites that were inundated.

• Such materials could leach into the reservoir, creating a health hazard.

• The relative lack of waste treatment plants in China also could mean run-off from communities around the dam would most likely go untreated directly into the reservoir and into the Yangtze.

• Dam will cause pollution from industrial & residential sources to concentrate in the river, rather than be flushed out at sea

Table: Summary of the arguments in favor of & against the dam

Issue Criticism DefenseCost Exceeds cost est. not

profitableWithin budget, efficiency allows dam to pay for itself

Resettlement Relocated people can never re-establish their lives

15 mill benefit from flood control

Environment Water pollution, species death Power provided is cleaner than other sources

Culture/Beauty Historic sites destroyed, gorge covered

Relics relocated, look of gorge mostly retained

Navigation Siltation slows transport Lock and Dam system speeds, no floods

Power Hydroelectric obsolete, market competition

No market competition yet

Flood Control Will not stop floods on tributaries, siltation will decrease storage

Flood storage capacity will end floods