Script
China is a one-party authoritarian regime as the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) controls all other small independent parties.
Change Slide - Membership of CPP
The Communist Communist Party offers political influence, status, and financial benefits that are required for many careers in China. In 2016, there are about 88 million CPP members with 2 million added every year.
Change Slide - CPP Changing Priority
Recruit targets changes according to the party needs and priority. Mao recruited industrial workers for his Marxist Communist Party. Deng Xiaoping recruited expert and practical people. 2001 the target broadened more to the three represents workers, peasants, and private entrepreneurs to gain economic benefits and maintain its power monopoly.
Change Slide - Political Succession
Unlike other authoritarian regimes, China has no office for handling peaceful transition of power when a leader dies. In the case of Mao Zedong, who passed in 1976, it led to power struggle between elite factions. Deng Xiaoping made sure to not be part of any political position before and during his office though to cause less tension. Furthermore, to have less instability Deng chose 2 of his successors before leaving power. The reason why transition of leaders is so smooth lately is to have each successive leader have less personal authority to balance faction interest and please the core group of leaders. Moreover, to maintain monopoly of power, the CPP put term limits and age requirements to ensure circulation of elites in leadership.
Change Slide - Civil Society
Civil society didn’t exist because any organized interests outside the party-state were considered illegitimate and are eliminated. To Deal with the social and political impact of economic reform, they created the weirdly named “government-operated nongovernmental organizations” or GONGOs to control society and mobilize social groups to fulfill its own national goals.The government has allowed half a million non-political legal NGOs, but there are many unregistered ones. Some have moved to advocating for groups they serve but too vocal ones are arrested. China, with the “three represents” policy as mentioned before, accepted China’s so called red capitalists and growing middle class into the CPP for their economic influence. Referring to CPP officials who are business owners.
Change Slide - Revolutionary Movements
Most revolutionary movements such as the Tiananmen Square are quickly repressed. For example, in 1999, those who practiced the Chinese martial art named Falun Gong were imposed restrictions which lead to public demonstrations and crackdowns with torture and executions by the government.
Chinese society’s complexity and openness in the 21 century will continue the cycle of revolution to repression again and again.
Nowadays, there are 700 million internet users which makes it increasingly difficult to censor user and social influences rising in China.
Some say these expanding of autonomous civil society could lead to more demand for democracy. But others note the Chinese response to Tibetan and Uighur protests were widely exposed internationally, but China managed to almost entirely censor it to its people. These increase in internet access has been used to expose the Chinese government, rally support, and organize protests. Therefore, China has created its Golden Shield or Great Firewall of China which is the party-state’s social media control project. It has been largely successful in restricting its citizens internet access through humans monitoring or filtering software.
Many social media apps were cracked down upon. For example, The app Weibo meaning ‘microblog’ allowed Chinese to anonymously express their opinions and share uncensored news and rumors. In 2012, the China stopped the anonymous feature while posting propaganda in the app.
Chinese activists are creative as they always find another app or way to do these things.
Change Slide - Society (Ethnic Identity) x2
China’s society is comprised of 90% Han Chinese, who has 8 different language groups. China adopted Mandarin as their official language which is widely used due to globalization. However, the 10% of 55 minority nationalities holds about 60% of the country’s territory in rural western areas. Chinese minorities has a history of violence with the Chinese state. Interntional demands for increased autonomy of Xinjiang and Tibetans in the “Free Tibet” and “East Turkestan” movements were made after the 1959 Chinese operation against ethnic minorities. The operation seek to eliminate opposition to Chinese soverignty and forced the Tibetan leader into exile in India. Tibet and East Turkestan were sought after by China because they found extensive fossil fuel reserves in it and sees the region as strategic positions for its westward expansion. Recently China has been investing money into developing infrastructures, buildings, and businesses in Tibet and Xinjiang. It did bring many jobs and opportunities, but along the way it also brought many Han Chinese to the regions of minorities. Fears over losing their indigenous language, cultures, and faith led to protests that were harshly repressed.
Change Slide - Ideology and Political Culture
Traditional Centralized Authoritarianism
China had a history of centralized authoritarian politics before its communist switch in 1949. Mao Zedong directly copied elements of the traditional hierarchical system. For example, university admission is intensly competed for and the respect of elders showed in the average age of party leaders.
Confucianism
Mao intended to destroy legacies of the teachings of Confucious. But modern Chinese leaders embraced key elements of Confucianism. Accordingly, the government’s role is to enforce pace, order, and stability in both family and nation by imposing strict moral codes and fostering “correct” heirarchical behaviors from citizens. Inferiors know their place and leaders to act proper.
Maoism
Moaism promoted constant class struggles instead of Confucious notion of harmony. Mao believed in the idea of creating a “new socialist man” for people to extend their loyalty from just family to the whole community and nation. It did so through constant propaganda & slogans, mass campaigns, “thought reform” nd “self-criticism” sessions in education. Now, leaderships prefer a depoliticized public with increasing acceptance of capitalism.
Nationalism
China’s powerful imperial past has created strong national pride in its people. Extreme nationalism, however, often turns to xenophobia of hating and turning hostile to other ethnicities. This was the case for China as Mao justified the struggle for communism with expeling the Japanese occupation and other countries. And China still uses its nationalism for claims such as the South China Sea and territorial disputs with Japan till this day.
Challenges to China’s Communist Political Culture
In Tianamen Square, the CPP showed that it had monopoly of force, but it also showed they no longer had monopoly on political thoughts. The rural poor, industrial workers, ethnic minorities started thinking for themselves. Falun Gong, Illegal Christian “house chruches” are able to gather supporters without government control. Western ideas and values flood China from students studying abroad. All of these show China’s reliant on a compliant public will create more problems in the future.
Change Slide - Political Economy (Mao’s Failure)
Under Mao Zedong, China had initially adopted the Soviet-style communist political economic model in 1949 that emphacized equality over freedom. It adopted central planning for states to own all properties and have full control of the economy. Seeing the success of Soviet’s privatization, land redistribution, and agricultural cooperatives, China launched its own Great Leap Forward seeking rapid industrialization. It’s Red versus experts policy prefered ideological trained people over experts in creating small-scal labor-intensive industries. It also created large agricultural communes and provided public goods. However, as it diverted energy from agriculture to the inefficient industries that it set up, the revolution was a failure and led to a 3 year famine. By the 1960s, Mao’s policies were abandoned. But in 1966 Mao launched the Great proletarian Cultural Revolution targeting experts causing schools to close and industries to shutdown. It was once again abandoned.
Change Slide - Deng Xiaoping
After Mao’s death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping adopted economic reforms for rapid economic growth through the household responsibility system. Where private farming is obligated to sell an amount to the state but any surplus can be sold on the open market. Food production grew, decentralized collective enterprises allowed economic freedom. China’s state owned industries dropped from 80% to 20% in 15 years. By the 80s, regulated private industries were allowed and special economic zones were created to offer tax breaks to lure FDI. In the 90s, China gave economic decision-making authority to privincial, local officals, and private entrepreneurs and was considered a Socialist Market Economy. China grew faster than any economy in history. It expanded 10% annually and its GDP grows 10 times over, but China still remains a poor country due to its inequality and large population.
Change Slide - State Capitalism and Foreign Investment
Althought most State Owned Enterprises (SOE)s were privatized, the party-state still holds important large industries such as oil, coal, transport, and telecommunication that receives preferential benefits private industries don’t get. China’s success to state-led capitalism has led to the development of the lable “Beijing consensus” as an alterntive to the “Washington Consensus”. However, China’s preferential treatment of demestic firms over foreing companies limited the potentially largest consumer market to grow and China’s economy is still considerably closed.
Change Slide - China’s Growth Model Brings Challenges
First, China’s profit oriented enterprises can lay off unproductive workers leading to mass unemployment. 25 million jobs a year would have to be made just to keep up with this unemployment. Second, inequality rose between urban and rural Chinese leading China to have Gini Index, or inequality score to rise from 16 in 39 in the 1980s. Developments and industrialization happen mostly in the East coast. The poor are neglected, city immigrants are left homeless,agricultural prices are low while tax are high, and public goods are poor. Third, China’s rapid development caused Resource shortage and environmental damage such as air pollution, water pollution, deforrestation, and droughts. Lastly, China’s trade surplus with its partners are so big, it cause problems of intellectual property rights, safety, and quality of its products. Two factions of future reformist disagree on how to reform China. The Populist is led by leaders with humble beginnings who favor equality and dislike capitalism for its economic inequality. While the Elitist favor economic freedom over equality for contintued economic growth and integration in the global economy.
Change Slide - Foreign Relations and the world
Change Slide - China’s Opening
In their history, China thought itself as superior. That stopped when Japan occupied the country to caste self-doubt and crisis on the country. From then China returned to isolation at its lowest during the Cultural Revolution. Since Mao’s death however, China began opening normal relations to the world again. Some argues that due to economic interdependence and willingness to participate in the international community, China will continue its rise peacefully. But there are doubters pointing to its frequent bursts of nationalism, territorial disputes, and with its huge growing demand for natural resources it has created questionable alliances.
Change Slide - Conflict Relations
After China’s communist rise in 1949, Taiwanese Nationalist troops and its leader Chiang Kai-shek retreated to establish Taiwan as China’s capital. In 1971, UN members were pressured by China to stop recognizing Taiwan and removed its seat. China has repeatedly threatend violent actions against Taiwan if it go against integrating fully into the PRC. Taiwan and China’s trade relations increased with its free-trade pact in 2010, creating fears of Taiwan being too dependent on China.
Hong Kong was forcefully taken by britain in the 19th century, turning it into a capitalist economic powerhouse. The one country, two system agreement between Britain and China allowing a 50 year transitional period for Hong Kong had worked and some say the system is what Taiwan should follow as well.
China-Japan relations still have tension due to Japan’s occupation of China in World War 2 causing territorial disputes over fishing resources and seabed petroleum reserves.
And China’s relations with ASEAN has waned due to the South China Sea dispute with multiple of its members.
Change Slide - Friendly Relations
However, China have also fixed many relations such as with India. Being the two most populous countries, China and India resolved thier border disputes and became close trading partners. With Russia, it signed their friendship treaty to end their communist rivalry. China has good relations with North Korea and acts as a sort of middle man for discussions with the international community. And even though the US and China had tenious relations. Ever since the events of September 11th, China has supported the US’s war on terrorism and has become close trade partners. Their bilateral relations was over $600 billion of two way trade and investment as measured in 2015.
Change Slide - Current Problems in China - Pollution & Development Model
The environment is a big issue in China. First, China has become the largest air polluter in the world. Western countries have been moving their polluting industries to China. The government focuses on boosting employment at all cost to maintain stability without a concern to the environment. And Chinese consumerism is getting more possible as the automaking industry in China is the biggest now. Its expected that china alone will have over a billion cars polluting the air in the future. But still there are actions being taken. Chinese citizens are starting to adopt postmaterialist values from the west such as caring for health, environmental damnage, and their quality of life. Those who are affected by pollution is getting more vocal while the CPP itself has been encouraging environmental NGOs to address the problem in China. Morover, China has also heavily invested in green energy for its future.
Authoritarian regimes are most likely to have corruption, abuse of power, lack of transparency and rule of law. Increasing inequality between the elites and citizens created by capitalism encourages bribery, nepotism, and rent-seeking even more. Xi Jinping’s 2013 anti-corruption campaign promised to arrest over 182,000 corrupt officials. But its said the campaign will cause the loss of over 100$ billion in economic activities such as parties, gift-giving, and under the table deals.