Politics and Government in China (Understanding China Today)

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The head of the local People's Government , is, in theory, elected by the people. Usually called a governor , mayor , or magistrate , depending on the level, this figure acts to carry out the policies and most ceremonial duties. The distinction has evolved into a system where the Party Secretary is always in precedence above the leader of the People's Government. After Deng Xiaoping took power in greater autonomy has been given to provinces in terms of economic policy implementation as well as other areas of policy such as education and transportation.

As a result, some provincial authorities have evolved tendencies of operating on a de facto federal system with Beijing. Prominent examples of greater autonomy are seen in the provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang , where local leaders do little to adhere to the strict standards issued by the Central Government, especially economic policy. In addition, conflicts have arisen in the relations of the central Party leaders with the few provincial-level Municipalities, most notably the municipal government of Shanghai and the rivalry between former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong and Jiang Zemin.

China's system of autonomous regions and autonomous prefectures within provinces are formally intended to provide for greater autonomy by the ethnic group majority that inhabits the region. In practice, however, power rests with the Party secretary. Beijing will often appoint loyal party cadres to oversee the local work as Party secretary, while the local Chairman of the region's government is regarded as its nominal head.

Power rests with the Party secretary. To avoid the solidification of local loyalties during a cadre's term in office, the central government freely and frequently transfers party cadres around different regions of the country, so a high ranking cadre's career might include service as governor or party secretary of several different provinces. The Party and the State jointly established the Central Military Commission that carries out the task of supreme military leadership over the armed forces. The PRC Constitution provides that the State Chairman President directs the armed forces and made the State Chairman the chair of the Defense Commission the Defense Commission is an advisory body, it does not lead the armed forces.

From that time onwards, the system of joint Party and state military leadership was established. The Central Committee of the Communist Party leads in all military affairs. The State Chairman directs the state military forces and the development of the military forces managed by the State Council. However, the CMC of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China remained the Party organization that directly leads the military and all the other armed forces. However, looking at it organizationally, these two CMCs are subordinate to two different systems — the Party system and the State system.

Therefore, the armed forces are under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party and are also the armed forces of the state. This is a unique Chinese system that ensures the joint leadership of the Communist Party and the state over the armed forces. No substantial legal political opposition groups exist, and the country is mainly run by the Communist Party of China CPC , but there are other political parties in the PRC, called "democratic parties", which participate in the People's Political Consultative Conference but mostly serve to endorse CPC policies.

Even as there have been some moves in the direction of democratisation as far as the electoral system at least, in that openly contested People's Congress elections are now held at the village and town levels, [24] and that legislatures have shown some assertiveness from time to time, the party retains effective control over governmental appointments. This is because the CPC wins by default in most electorates. Current political concerns in Mainland China include countering the growing gap between the wealthy and the poorer, and fighting corruption within the government leadership and its institutions.

Also, private conversations and anecdotal information often reveal conflicting views.

Government of China

However, according to a survey conducted in Hong Kong, where a relatively high level of freedom is enjoyed, the current CPC leaders have received substantial votes of support when its residents were asked to rank their favourite Chinese leaders from Mainland and Taiwan. The eight registered minor parties have existed since before Their original function was to create the impression that the PRC was being ruled by a diverse national front, not a one-party dictatorship.

The major role of these parties is to attract and subsequently muzzle niches in society that have political tendencies, such as the academia. Although these parties are tightly controlled and do not challenge the Communist Party, members of the parties often individually are found in policy-making national institutions, and there is a convention that state institutions generally have at least one sinecure from a minor political party. Coordination between the eight registered minor parties and the Communist Party of China is done through the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference which meets annually in Beijing in March at about the same time that the National People's Congress meets.

In addition, there are a few minor parties which either lack official recognition or are actively suppressed by the government, such as the Maoist Communist Party of China , China Democracy Party and China New Democracy Party , which have their headquarters outside of the Mainland China. The Chinese legal code is a complex amalgam of custom and statute, largely focused on criminal law, though a rudimentary civil code has been in effect since January 1, and new legal codes have been in effect since January 1, Continuing efforts are being made to improve civil, administrative, criminal, and commercial law.

Although current law of China cannot be categorised by arbitrary rule, it is over-simplifying to describe it as a system of rule of law. While personal freedom and right to private property is nominally guaranteed by law, officials maintain the right to trespass citizens before proving or suspecting them breaking the law through the use of Droit administrati.

In other words, the concept of Habeas corpus does not apply in China. Also, Party members are subjected to different sets of law, namely the Constitution of the Communist Party of China , which authorises itself to use state apparatus to regulate behaviours of party members, sometimes overriding Law of the land.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Chinese law is the lack of a mechanism to verify the constitutionality of statute laws. This in effect allows the enactment of any administrative laws as long as circumstances justify. The government's efforts to promote rule by law not the same as rule of law are significant and ongoing. After the Cultural Revolution , the PRC's leaders aimed to develop a legal system to restrain abuses of official authority and revolutionary excesses.

In , the National People's Congress adopted a new state constitution that emphasized the concept of rule by law by which party and state organizations are all subject to the law. The importance of the rule by law was further elevated by a Constitutional amendment. Many commentators [ who?

Since , when the drive to establish a functioning legal system began, more than laws and regulations, most of them in the economic area, have been promulgated. After China's entry into the WTO , many new economically related laws have been put in place, while others have been amended. There are more than , such committees in both rural and urban areas. Legal reform became a government priority in the s. Legislation designed to modernize and professionalize the nation's lawyers, judges, and prisons was enacted.

The Administrative Procedure Law allows citizens to sue officials for abuse of authority or malfeasance. In addition, the criminal law and the criminal procedures laws were amended to introduce significant reforms. The criminal law amendments abolished the crime of "counter-revolutionary" activity and references to "counter-revolutionaries" disappeared with the passing of the Constitutional amendment , while criminal procedures reforms encouraged establishment of a more transparent, adversarial trial process.

The PRC Constitution and laws provide for fundamental human rights, including due process, although those laws also provide for limitations of those rights. Although the human rights situation in mainland China has improved markedly since the s the Constitutional amendments specifically stressed that the State protects human rights , the government remains determined to prevent any organized opposition to its rule. Amnesty International estimates that the PRC holds several thousand political prisoners. Although illegal, there have been reports of torture by civil authorities.

Nationality is granted at birth to children with at least one Chinese-national parent, with some exceptions. In general, naturalization or the obtainment of People's Republic of China nationality is difficult. The Nationality Law prescribes only three conditions for the obtainment of PRC nationality marriage to a PRC national is one, permanent residence is another.

If a PRC citizen voluntarily obtains a foreign nationality, he or she loses Chinese nationality automatically yet this regulation does not apply to party members or government officials [ citation needed ]. If the citizen then wishes to resume PRC nationality, the foreign nationality is no longer recognized. The PRC is officially a multi-ethnic state providing ethnic autonomy in the form of autonomous administrative entities in accordance with Section 6 of Chapter 3 Articles of the Constitution of China , and with more detail under the Law of the People's Republic of China on Ethnical Regional Autonomy System.

By law, ethnic minorities receive advantages in areas such as population control, school admissions, government employment, and military recruitment. The PRC recognises 56 nationalities in China and simultaneously categorises them as one hegemonic Chinese nation. However, separatist sentiment has occasionally flared in Tibet and Xinjiang. As such, independence groups and foreign human rights groups are critical of the PRC's policies in ethnic areas, and have bemoaned the presence of Han Chinese the main ethnic group of China in Xinjiang and Tibet.

The PRC maintains diplomatic relations with most countries in the world. Under the PRC's constitution , the presidency is a largely ceremonial office with limited powers. Liu fell into political disgrace during the Cultural Revolution , after which the office became vacant. The office was abolished under the Constitution of , then reinstated in the Constitution of , but with reduced powers.

The official English-language translation of the title was " Chairman "; after , this translation was changed to " President ", although the Chinese title remains unchanged. It is appointed by the National People's Congress and is chaired by the Premier and includes the heads of each governmental department and agency. There are about 50 members in the Council. The State Council directly oversees the various subordinate People's Governments in the provinces, and in practice maintains an interlocking membership with the top levels of the Communist Party of China.

Together with the five State Councilors , they form the inner cabinet that regularly convenes for the State Council Executive Meeting. The state CMC is nominally considered the supreme military policy-making body and its chairman, elected by the National People's Congress, is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. It supervises all public officials who exercise public power, at the same administrative ranking as the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate [17].

It replaces the former Ministry of Supervision. Hong Kong and Macau, as special administrative regions, have separate judicial systems based on British common law traditions and Portuguese civil-law traditions respectively, and are out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme People's Court. The governors of China's provinces and autonomous regions and mayors of its centrally controlled municipalities are appointed by the central government in Beijing after receiving the nominal consent of the National People's Congress NPC. The Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions SARS have some local autonomy since they have separate governments, legal systems, and basic constitutional laws, but they come under Beijing's control in matters of foreign policy and national security , and their chief executives are handpicked by the central government.

Below the provincial level in there were 50 rural prefectures, prefecture-level cities, county-level cities, county-level districts under the jurisdiction of nearby cities, and 1, counties. There also were cities including those incorporated into the four centrally controlled municipalities , urban districts, and 43, township-level regions.

Counties are divided into townships and villages. While most have appointed officials running them, some lower-level jurisdictions have direct popular elections. The organs of self-governing ethnic autonomous areas regions, prefectures, and counties —people's congresses and people's governments—exercise the same powers as their provincial-level counterparts but are guided additionally by the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and require NPC Standing Committee approval for regulations they enact "in the exercise of autonomy" and "in light of the political, economic, and cultural characteristics of the ethnic group or ethnic groups in the areas.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the government of the People's Republic of China. For governments in Chinese history, see Government of China disambiguation. This article includes a list of references , but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. May Learn how and when to remove this template message.

Emblem of the People's Republic of China. Xi Jinping Communist Party leader: Xi Jinping Head of state: Xi Jinping Head of government: Li Keqiang Congress Chairman: Li Zhanshu Conference Chairman: Scientific Outlook on Development. Constitution Previous constitutions Xu Qiliang Zhang Youxia.

National Defense Mobilization Commission. Zhao Kezhi State Councilor. Xi Jinping Deputy Leader: Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director: Xi Jinping Deputy Director: Administrative divisions Hukou system Family planning Ethnic minorities. How can the Chinese communist state manage not only to survive but also.

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An Introduction Palgrave Macmillan, Janos Kornai, The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism Princeton:. Theories are important because political studies are not simply a summary of. Often, theoretical models, or approaches informed by or derived. Theories and models for studying Chinese politics and government have.

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The study of Chinese politics can be generally divided. We have witnessed the substantial transformation. A simple survey of the Journal of Chinese Political Science and other. Theoretical models for studying Chinese politics The scholarship we produce today has advanced far. Scholars and students in our. Easton, and many others. All of them have had a great impact on how we study.

China and Chinese politics. In order to understand how Chinese politics has been studied, and help. However, it is not the intention of this textbook to introduce. Many of the features listed in the classical model have. They have attempted to establish that the totalitarian model has. Odom, for example, has. Modernization theory has been the result of the attempt to develop an.

The modernization model assumes that there is a causal. As a matter of fact, many studies suggest that China,. The bureaucratic politics model recognizes the dominant position of the. However, it assumes that politics takes.

Major bureaucratic interests and local. As a matter of fact, there are few. Bureaucratic behavior and bargaining do not in themselves justify. The system theory has also been employed by scholars to analyze Chinese. According to this theory, demand, expectations, and support, which. These outputs, in turn, create. The demand and support. Chinese politics, such as local politics and governance, policy implementation,. One of the major.

Although the news media. Thus, scholars will have to. The factional politics model focuses on the power struggle among factional. Factions share different interpretations of. Factional leaders sometimes have to enter some alliances with other factional.

However, there is a constant power struggle among factions for. The elite politics model is a new development of the factional politics model. The informal politics model is another variant of the factional politics model. However, the informal politics model focuses on the relationships and impacts. It seems that such relationships. Confucian culture and tradition, and such activities have created informal rules.

Therefore, the informal politics model or the study of. The pluralist politics model, unlike the elite politics model that focuses on the. Fragmented authoritarianism or soft authoritarianism is a concept used by some. However, the major problem of this model is to confuse two different political. Many scholars have focused on state—society relations in their analysis and. This model is also compatible with the pluralist politics. The fact is that the. Corporatism has recently become popular among scholars in their study of. The concept is well theorized and informed by other.

Particularly since the late s, corporatism. Corporatism refers to a. These institutions and practices involve a system of. Modern corporatism may take a variety of forms in different countries,. Different forms of corporatism suggest that corporatism tends to grow out of. Some scholars have investigated the applicability of this analytical model. NGOs are integrated into the party—state, and interest allocation. Social organizations still serve as. Political culture theories provide a cultural lens for studying Chinese politics. Political culture is a particular distribution of political beliefs, attitudes, values,.

Thus, Chinese politics cannot be understood. However, as one leading authority. People act, react, and interact to seek goods and. Among these circumstances are those pertaining to the culture—the informal. Cultural analysis details and sometimes explains these institutions, customs. However, the study of political culture has limitations in conceptualizing. As another leading authority on.

Deductions from one strand of a culture will not necessarily lead to. So culture cannot be used in. Institutions are social, political, economic, and cultural structures, customs,. Institutions are manifest in both formal. Therefore, they are interested. Although actors make choices based on a calculus of individual or collective. Chinese political institutions with other modern states with similar features—. All the models of communist politics we have considered have their merits. But which one is optimal? Models by their very nature are.

Huntington, a most important political scientist, a macro-model for a political. While I acknowledge the important insights and contributions of these. Each model may capture one. Inspired by the ideas. The macro-analytical model this textbook will adopt is the Leninist party—state ,. However, from the methodological perspective, this textbook will combine. This hybrid approach allows us to reveal and examine. This approach provides a conceptual framework.

Politics and Government in China

To answer the question of what kind of system it is, many people no longer. Chinese political system and central reality of post-Mao Chinese politics nor. Chinese political system as the Leninist party—state in post-Mao China has been. The party exercises the organizational principle of. The party seeks to indoctrinate its members as well as the. The aforementioned discussion begs the questions: However, the communist state has a number of operative features or action.

The Party claims to be the possessor of absolute and. Unlike this type of regime, authoritarian. C A party—state apparatus is the third core feature of this type of regime. Leninist party—state political system that can be merged into the fundamental. Category Types Essential Operative. Leninist party—state can be illustrated, as in Table 2. The function of the dynamic core or fundamental level in relation to the.

After the communist takeover in , Chinese communists largely duplicated. The Chinese communist regime claims to possess. It claims its ideological sources in Marxism—. Leninism, which constitutes a universal formula for mankind toward an. Historical materialism and dialectic materialism are used by the Chinese. The Leninist party—state pursues the twin goals of Utopia and. Leninist party—state, and it was pursued as the means to maintain the. Either more or less Utopian goal serves the same function.

According to Lowenthal, the twin. Communist ideology falls into the category of the unconstrained. Communist revolution and socialist construction are the. Ideological propaganda and communist moral education pervade. Individual conscience and attitude are subjugated to party. Independent theoretical thinking and creation are. One might have some latitude for personal.

Ideologization of socio-cultural life is a. Monopoly over the interpretation of doctrine. The body of these fundamental principles,. These core components must be sustained to maintain regime identity,. A highly hierarchical and. The real sovereign is the party, not the state. The party, overriding the traditional. Under the leadership of the CPC, the structure and function of the party and.

The CPC, as the governing party, in the. European democracies, is statized and institutionalized, and acts like an. The party is in effect a power center which exercises control over the state. The bureaucratization of party power has also been duplicated on lower levels.

Party organizations penetrate all sectors of the state and almost every corner. The government and other state institutions are actually the. The party—state relations have the following institutional. The legislature is a political tool used to preserve, maintain, and protect the. However, in practice, they are not. Everything is already decided in advance before the opening of.

The legal system is not independent of party power. Communist Party puts itself above the Constitution and the legal system, and. This principle is the founda-. More importantly, this principle. This principle is largely ignored in post-Mao China. So critical is its role in the exercise of power that one can not really. The strict party discipline, the loyalty to the ideological. The fundamental features or hardcore must.

Therefore, change at the operative level will. As long as this. For example, more resort to law. We have conceptually as well as graphically illustrated the model of the. The model provides reference points. Leninist party—state regime in theoretical and comparative terms, to examine. The model can both. Finally, there may be a need to combine one theoretical model with others. The Leninist party—state model can go hand in hand. In this way, we should be able to capture,. Why are theories and models important in the study of politics? What is a Leninist party—state?

What might be the operative features of a Leninist party—state? What is the relationship between the hardcore and the operative features. What is the distinction between a generic change. How useful is this distinction in the study. Bruce Dickson, Democratization in China and Taiwan: The Adaptability of Leninist. Oxford University Press, A fundamental factor in understanding China, particularly. This is not a geography. Therefore, as students of political science, we. Students of Chinese politics often ask the question why China has had a long.

In other words, what. Students may look at the. Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River valley Huang He. Originating in the Bayan Har. Courtesy of Asia for Educators http: Eventually, the enormous amount of water has. Per capita arable land is only one-tenth of a hectare,. Courtesy of Asia for Educators, http: Shaping forces of Chinese state-making, political culture, and tradition This means there is a small portion of the land that is suitable for cultivation. Therefore, understanding the physical conditions that people of the.

Loess Plateau inhabited is essential in understanding the relationship between. Loess Plateau covers an area of some , km 2 in the upper and middle. Loess is the name for the silty. Loess is a highly erosion-prone soil that is susceptible to the forces of wind. It is essential to understand the impact of topographical conditions on. In ancient times, the Loess Plateau was highly fertile and easy to. Engineering Geology Special Publication No. Chinese civilization around the Loess Plateau.

However, in addition to the impact of such a massive and unprecedented. Although the Plateau has annual rainfall. From left to right: Gates, Till Niermann, and Xu Peishe. Another recent study by a group of Chinese scholars has revealed. The study concludes that these. As a result of limited arable land for food production, agriculture was pushed. West Zhou held immense power over.

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Eastern Zhou just by controlling the water supply. Here is the translation:. Eastern Chou wished to plant rice but Western Chou would not allow water. Eastern Chou was troubled about it. Su-tzu spoke to the. Prince of Eastern Chou and said: Western Chou let the water through, May I? Not to let water through now is to enrich Eastern Chou. If you let water through, Eastern Chou. When they have sown rice deprive them.

If you do that you can make the people of Eastern Chou look. The Price of Western Cho said: Su-tzu also got money from both the states. With Chinese civilization extending to a larger area after the Han dynasty. However, the relationship between land and. In most Chinese regions,. The climate of China is dominated. This natural landscape is ordered in three tiers, ranging from. Rivers have their origins high in the mountains of western China. In the summer, the monsoons push over the belt of mountains, providing. If the downpours from the rainy season are not channeled into.

However, usually successive downpours are often. Yellow and the Yangtze, and their tributaries, where 90 percent of the. Yangtze River, joined by a great network of tributaries, carries an enormous. During the rainy season in the. Yangtze basin and less mountainous regions when the water levels rise and. China has been plagued by this basic problem of limited arable land with. As one study has shown,. Therefore, the functions of government involved what John Fairbank. According to an eminent professor of Chinese.

Wittfogel, unlike the feudalism of Europe in which the. The concept of Oriental despotism is. So it is evident that geographical and climatic conditions have remarkable. Inhabitants of such physical. This shaped and led to the development of the Chinese. China as well as their norms and perceptions of the relationships between. The harsh physical conditions also led to another Chinese character trait that. That is, the trait of. More than 2, years of hydraulic agriculture. People felt powerless before nature. Farmers were at the mercy of the weather, dependent. Although many schools in Chinese traditional thought, such as Legalism.

Chinese history and political tradition. As a collectivistic based value system. In short, natural forces of physical conditions have. Keeping this in mind, we will continue to. Over thousands of years, the traditional Chinese political system has developed. Spring and Autumn Period — Warring States Period — Southern and Northern Dynasties — Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms — Chinese political development has characterized the traditional Chinese. The emperor is the. A hereditary nobility often limited the.

China also lacked another feature of the early modern West,. Confucianism was the governing philosophy of the state for centuries. Confucianism had several core features that. The bureaucratic elite the Mandarins at central,. To be eligible for the.

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