AP CoGo China Vocabulary

  1. 3rd generation leader : from 1992-2003 leaders (Jiang Zemin) who received education in the Soviet Union and joined the Communist Party, during the times of economic development in China.

  2. 4th generation leader: from 2003 to 2010, Hu Jintao is the core figure or General Secretary. Represents the "republican generation" with a technocratic style and a less centralized political structure.

  3. autonomous regions: Areas that have limited self-government within a sovereign country; used especially of areas in China where ethnic minorities have been granted some autonomy

  4. Cadres: a person who occupies a position of authority in a communist-party state; may or may not be Communist Party members

  5. Central Committee: Supposedly the most important body in a communist party; its influence declined as it grew in size and the party needed daily leadership.

  6. Central Military Commission: represents the military in China's government; head plays an important role in policymaking

  7. Chiang Kai-shek: General and leader of Nationalist China after 1925. Although he succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang, he became a military dictator whose major goal was to crush the communist movement led by Mao Zedong. (p. 788)

  8. Collectivism: Giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly

  9. Chinese Communist Party: Party formed in 1923 when Sun Yat-Sen merged the Third Communist International and the KMT to create the first of many liberation fronts. This front was completely anti conservative and anti-imperialist, but not fully communist. Eventually it would separate from and defeat the KMT under Mao Zedong in 1927.

  10. Confucianism: A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

  11. Cultural Revolution: (1966-1976) Political policy started in China by Mao Zedong to eliminate his rivals and train a new generation in the revolutionary spirit that created communist China. The Cultural Revolution resulted in beatings, terror, mass jailings, and the deaths of thousands.

  12. Danwei: control maintained through this system, all Chinese citizens have a lifetime affiliation with a specific industrial, agricultural, or bureaucratic system that dictated all aspects of their lives, including housing, health care, and other social benefits.

  13. Decentralization: Degree to which decision-making authority is given to lower levels in an organization's hierarchy.

  14. democratic centralism: a form of democracy in which the interests of the masses were discovered through discussion within the Communist party, and then decisions were made under central leadership to serve those interests

  15. Deng Xiaoping Theory: A practical mix of authoritarian political control and economic privatization

  16. dual role: The relationship between the Communist Party and the Chinese government.

  17. dynastic cycles: Families ruling for generations

  18. Egalitarianism: the doctrine of the equality of mankind and the desirability of political and economic and social equality

  19. ethic of struggle: one of mao's principles in the cultural revolution, and a theme that carried throughout his reign

  20. Factions: Political groups that agree on objectives and policies; the origins of political parties.

  21. Fang-shou: a tightening and loosening cycle, waxing and waning of the power of each faction

  22. floating population: China's 150 million moving peasants who left the countryside to find urban employment. They have no danwei affiliation.

  23. foreign devils: Chinese term; Represents a hatred for those other than chinese, sprung out after the Revolution of 1911 and bound the country nationalistically to fight against the capitalist countries

  24. Four Modernization: Deng Xiaoping's plan to change China after the disaster of Cultural Revolution. Improve- agriculture, science/technology, defense and industry

  25. free market socialism

  26. socialist market economy: chinese characteristics is the official title of the economic system since the reforms of deng xiaoping and consists of a mixture of state-owned enterprises with an open-market economy

  27. Gang of Four: Jiang Qing and her allies who opposed the pragmatists after the death of Mao Zedong; arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

  28. Guanxi: a Chinese term meaning "connections" or "relationships" and describes personal ties between individuals based on such things as common birthplace or mutual acquaintances; an important factor in China's political and economic life.

  29. Great Leap Forward: China's second five-year plan under the leadership of the impatient Mao, it aimed to speed up economic development while simultaneously developing a completely socialist society. This plan failed and more than 20 million people starved between 1958 and 1960.

  30. Han Chinese: Inhabitants of China proper who considered others to be outsiders. They felt that they were the only authentic Chinese.

  31. Hegemony: the domination of one state or group over its allies household responsibility system the system put into practice in China beginning in the early 1980s in which the major decisions about agricultural production are made by individual farm families based on the profit motive rather than by a people's commune or the government

  32. Hu Jintao: China's current Communist party leader and head of state

  33. Hukou: china's traditional household registration system that makes it difficult to move from one place to another

  34. Hu Yaobang: Chinese leader with Deng, supported the reforms, when he died in 1989 students wanted him to be commemorated, day before his funeral students march on tiananmen square, causing the protests

  35. iron rice bowl: a feature of China's socialist economy that provided guarantees of lifetime employment, income, and basic cradle-to-grave benefits to most urban and rural workers. Economic reforms beginning in the 1980s that aimed at improving efficiency and work motivation sought to mash the iron rice bowl and link employment and income more directly to individual effort.

  36. Jiang Zemin: Deng's successor in the 1990s as Communist Party leader and head of state

  37. Li Peng: Former premier and chair of the National People's Congress; the most visible representative of China's government who backed the use of force to quell the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

  38. The Long March: 6,000 mile journey made by Chinese Communists fleeing from Nationalist forces

  39. mandate of heaven: Legitimacy in dynastic cycles

  40. Mao Zedong: (1893-1976) Leader of the Communist Party in China that overthrew Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalists. Established China as the People's Republic of China and ruled from 1949 until 1976.

  41. Maoism: The theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism developed in China by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), which states that a continuous revolution is necessary if the leaders of a communist state are to keep in touch with the people.

  42. mass line: Economic policy of Mao Zedong; led to formation of agricultural cooperatives in 1955; cooperatives became farming collectives in 1956.

  43. mass mobilization: the process of involving large numbers of people in a social movement

  44. Nationalist Party: The party of Chiang Kai-shek. They ruled China from 1928 until the victory of the Communists in 1949. This party led a revolution against the emperor 1911. They also tried to establish a democracy. When they were defeated by the communists they fled to Taiwan. They still rule Taiwan today.

  45. National Party Congress: body of over 2,000 delegates chosen primarily from congresses on lower levels; meets every 5 years to rubber stamp decisions by party leaders; main power: elect members of the Central Committee

  46. a new socialist countryside: wen jiabao's pledge to narrow the rich-poor gap and to channel more wealth to the villagers and rural migrant workers of china

  47. Nomenklatura: the process of filing influential jobs in the state, society, or the economy with people approved and chosen by the communist party

  48. one country, two systems: an idea originally proposed by Deng Xiaoping, then Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC), for the reunification of China during the early 1980s. He suggested that there would be only one China, but areas such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan could have their own capitalist economic and political systems, while the rest of China uses the "socialist" system.

  49. parallel hierarchies: linkage between the communist party, state/gov't, and the People's Liberation army

  50. patron client system in China: "guanxi" connections within parties by ideological differences and similarities

  51. People's Courts: China's nationwide court system that deals with both criminal and civil cases. All courts are supervised by the Supreme People's Court

  52. Procuratorate: official who investigates and prosecutes official crimes

  53. People's Liberation Army: Chinese Communist army; administered much of the country under the People's Republic of China.

  54. People's National Congress: top of the government hierarchy where state authority is formally vested; subject to party authority; chooses the president and the vice president of China

  55. Plenums: meetings of the Central Committee

  56. Politburo: A seven-member committee that meets in secret. Has the most power

  57. Standing Committee: Second highest body in China's legislature. Members of the politburo are selected from this

  58. political elites: Persons with a disproportionate share of political power

  59. private business: includes urban co-ops, service organizations, and rural industries that largely operate as capitalist enterprises

  60. rule of law and China: based on the belief that rulers should not have absolute power over their subjects and that their actions should be constrained by the same principles that control ordinary citizens; little place under Mao, but leaders in 1978 began to develop new legal ideas and institutions that included this; law binds behavior and all are equally subject to them

  61. socialist market economy: the term used by the government of China to refer to the country's current economic system. It is meant to convey the mix of state control (socialism) and market forces (capitalism) that China is now following in its quest for economic development. The implication is that socialism will promote equality, while the market (especially the profit motive) will encourage people to work hard and foreign companies to invest.

  62. Special Economic Zones: In 1979, the Chinese government set up these zones on the coast near Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Improved transportation, lower taxes, and other incentives attracted investments from foreign businesses. They helped stimulate innovation and helped China grow economically.

  63. state corporatism: a political system in which the state requires all members of a particular economic sector to join an officially designated interest group, with the result that the state gains substantial control over interest groups and interest groups channel or control their members' political and economic advocacy

  64. Sun Yat-sen: First president of the Chinese Republic after the Revolution of 1911

  65. Technocrats: highly-educated bureaucrats who make decisions based on their perceptions of technical issues rather than political ones

  66. township and village enterprises: attempts at limited capitalism, citizens and villages can own a company/business and earn a profit, TVE

  67. Two Chinas: People's Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan)

  68. unstinting service: The unconditional support for something or someone. Happens with the communist officials with the CCP leaders.

  69. Wen Jiabao: China's current premier and head of government.

  70. Youth League: a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight, run by Communist Party of China. The league is organized on the party pattern.

  71. Zhao Ziyang: One of Chairman Deng's right-hand men. Helped Deng to reform the economy.