Chapter 9: The People’s Republic of China

Confucian values

China’s dynastic roots were centered on Confucianism, which taught adherence to social hierarchy and a suppression of individual ambition in the name of achieving social harmony of the collective group.

Ethnocentrism

Ancient dynasties spoke of China as “The Middle Kingdom,” or in essence, the center of human civilization.

Isolationism

As European imperialism reshaped the world in the late nineteenth century, China fell under the influence of powers from Britain, France, Germany, and later Japan.

Maoism

Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Revolution in the 1930s and 1940s, left an indelible impression on Chinese politics with his charisma and the ideals of his movement.

Deng xiaoping theory

Deng Xiaoping succeeded Mao in leadership of the Chinese Communist Party after Mao’s death and rejected Mao’s ideological commitment to leftist values for a more pragmatic approach.

Informal relationships/patron-clientelism

While official positions and formal authority matter in modern China, it is just as important to understand that much of Chinese political operation depends on informal relationships and friendships within the CCP.

Guanxi, or “connection,”

is often used to describe a political actor’s ability to achieve a political goal, based on personal connections to those in power.

China

is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, and while many of China’s ancient practices dating back to dynastic rule are still visible today, China endured a series of major upheavals in the twentieth century that brought about the modern Chinese state.

Chiang Kai-Shek

became president of China in 1928, and could not maintain Sun’s good relationship with the CCP.

Democratic-centralism and mass line

Much like Lenin’s vision, the Maoist state would be run by an inner revolutionary elite who would professionalize the revolutionary organization.

Mass line

described the connection the leadership must always maintain to the people, carefully listening to the wisdom of the masses.

Struggle and activism

Though leadership would be centralized, Mao insisted that development of the state could not come from the inner elites, but rather that change must come from the collective action and struggle of the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses.

Collectivism

Maoist thought values the good of the community above the good of the individual.

Egalitarianism

Maoism rejected the old hierarchies of the dynastic age and sought to abolish all class distinctions, even those based on merit or scholarship.

Great Leap Forward

attempted to force China’s transition from an agrarian society to a utopian socialist economy through rapid collectivization and industrialization.

Radicals

The radicals were the loyal Maoists who supported the ideological goals and methods of the Cultural Revolution.

Moderates

The moderates recognized many of the failures of the Cultural Revolution and sought to forge a more pragmatic policy program meant to modernize the Chinese economy for growth, even if growth led to some inequality in Chinese society.

Military

Military leaders played an influential role within the Party’s senior leadership because of the necessity of a large army to force compliance with the series of mass cultural campaigns.

Restoring agricultural markets

By creating town-village enterprises, or TVEs, Deng allowed peasants to decide for themselves if they would continue farming collectively or individually, and peasants were free to keep profits they earned from the sale of their produce (though they did not gain private ownership of the land they worked on).

Industry reform

Factories were to set prices and production based on supply and demand in the market, and Party leaders would no longer have control over their pricing and production decisions.

Opening of china

Deng gradually opened China to the global economy, inviting foreign investment by creating Special Economic Zones (SEZs) with no tariffs, and allowing multinational corporations to come in to do business in China, hiring Chinese workers and selling their products in the Chinese market.

Reemphasizing education

After Mao’s persecution of intellectuals, which ran contrary to China’s culture of social promotion based on merit, Deng reopened universities across the country and began recruiting college graduates with specific skills and expertise beyond ideological loyalty into Party leadership.

Small enterprises

While Deng did not immediately privatize Chinese land or heavy industry, he allowed entrepreneurs to start their own new small businesses, and they were also allowed to source their capital from foreign investors or corporations.

Tibet

was conquered by China in the 1950s, but the former government of Tibet, led by the Dalai Lama, a spiritual leader who also acted as the inherited head of state, refused to recognize the conquest.

Economic reforms

have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty and created massive cities in the east and manufacturing centers in the center of the country.

Real estate developers

sometimes evict rural peasants, and Party corruption is often blamed.

Urban residents

fear the effects of this wave of poor laborers moving into their neighborhoods, similar to concerns in developed countries about immigration from poorer countries.

Chinese Communist Party

attempted to control all aspects of political and social life under Mao.

Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa)

was persecuted by the state in the early 2000s for organizing 70 million Chinese practitioners without state support.

Chinese detention

is suspected of killing over 2,000 Falun Gong members.

Party Congresses

approve major Party decisions, including central leadership at each level.

Politburo

standing committee sees major turnover during these transitions.

Interest groups

cannot freely influence the state in a pluralist system unless they submit to the CCP and get official recognition.

All-China Federation of Trade Unions

which represents factory workers, is one of the Party's associational groups that monopolize a group's interests.

National People's Congress (NPC)

has nearly 3,000 provincial, county, and local assembly members, including village/township representatives.

Chinese bureaucracy

is hierarchical like the Communist Party.

Chinese bureaucrats

often take bribes and make corrupt deals with local businesses, especially in rural areas.

Mao Zedong

told a Party Congress that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" to justify armed struggle against the KMT.

Central Military Commission

chaired by the general secretary and president of China, Xi Jinping, includes top generals who also serve in the CCP Politburo.

Policymaking

is attempting to balance the ambitions of a large and increasingly powerful state to shape affairs in its favor on the world stage, and the needs of a massive population that is still largely poor and rural.

Maoist welfare state

known as the iron rice bowl, guaranteed citizens work, housing, health care, and retirement in accordance with Mao's egalitarian vision.

Air pollution

may be the most pervasive environmental issue in China, affecting citizens daily.

Environmental groups

can report issues without local officials retaliating.

Policymaking

is attempting to balance the ambitions of a large and increasingly powerful state to shape affairs in its favor on the world stage, and the needs of a massive population that is still largely poor and rural.

Maoist welfare state

known as the iron rice bowl, guaranteed citizens work, housing, health care, and retirement in accordance with Mao's egalitarian vision.

Air pollution

may be the most pervasive environmental issue in China, affecting citizens daily.

Environmental groups

can report issues without local officials retaliating.