THEME II

Authority and Governance

What you will learn in this Theme

How Effectively is China Governed?

Concept of authority: Mandate of Heaven

Political transformation under Mao Zedong
Deng and pot-Deng era reforms
Role of political institutions e.g. CCP, State bureaucracy, PLA etc.

What are the challenges of governing China?

Political reforms
Central-regional relations
Cross-strait relations

Overview
1.Concept of authority and
political legitimacy

2.Overview of Chinese
Governance in Mao Era
3.Assessing Deng
Xiaopings Rule

1. Concept of authority and political

legitimacy

Mandate of Heaven
(Tian Ming)

Traditional imperial
concept of legitimacy

As opposed to most of
our present concept of
legitimacy which is.

Used to legitimatize the conquest and usurpation of SHANG

( ) emperorship by ZHOU ( )

Based on Chinese cosmology and Daoist concept of

Yin/YangWorlds of Man and nature united as one

disasters and the dynastys incapability in alleviating

suffering = losing of Mandate of Heaven to rule

Tian was primarily interested in the welfare of human beings

Tian established governors and rulers to assume the

responsibility for the welfare of their people

The rulers therefore must rule justly, fairly, and wisely

Losing ones Mandate of Heaven justified revolts

Concept enshrined in the dynastic era by the literati

Conferred positive or negative status upon the ruling

dynasty

Mandate of Heaven concept is employed by the literati to

assess the dynasty

Dynastic China dependent on the gentry to rule and not a

bureaucracy

Three core features of Confucianism as political

ideology

It was a strongly conservative governing ideology

It valued hierarchy in both political and social spheres

It aimed at preserving order and looked not to the future but to the past
to identify the ideal society
Political sphere: those who worked with their minds were fit to rule,
and those who worked with their hands were not (
)
Social sphere: social harmony lay in every persons understanding the
mutual obligations

People should understand the correct conduct demanded

by each type of relationship and should act accordingly

The emperor, as the key link between heaven and earth, secured
prosperity for his country through right conduct toward his subjects

2. Overview of Chinese
in Mao Era
TheGovernance
Governing Apparatus

The

Governance of Mao Era

From Communist Victory to Social Transformation:

1949-1956
From Success to Crisis: 1957-1965
Anti-rightist

campaign
Great Leap Forward
Increasing Tension in Governing System

The Cultural Revolution

Summary:

The Maoist System of Governance

The governing apparatus

The

components of governing
apparatus
The Chinese Communist Party
The Government
The Peoples Liberation Army

 The

goals of the governing apparatus

To be centralized enough to give the top

leaders in Beijing leverage to determine
the national domestic agenda;
To promote and manage rapid industrial
development, in part by obtaining
resources from the rural sector;
To bring about guided social change

From Victory to Social

Transformation: 1949 1956
The

setting

Chinese people were eager for strong

government, national unity, and real
independence
Chinese economy was in a shambles

Part II: Mao Era

 Gaining

momentum

To cement the relationship with Soviet

Union
To establish a governing apparatus to
rule
To restore the Urban economy
Brought

down inflation
Created pro-business climate to promote
business
Private first sold to state or jointly owned by
state and private owners

 To consolidate control over the

countryside while paying off a historical
debt to the peasantry by a nationwide
land reform
Killed

landlords as a social class

Enhanced the CCPs own access to the
villages

From Victory to Social

Transformation: 1949 1956

Political

initiatives and mass campaigns

Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries (
) campaign in early 1951
Three Anti Five Anti ( ) campaign
between winters of 1951 and 1952

Three Anti (against waste, corruption, and bureaucratism)

against the CCP urban cadres
Five Anti (against corruption, tax evasion, stealing state
property, cheating on state contracts, and stealing state
economic secrets) against urban business
A fundamental turning point in CCPs relationship with urban populace

 Thought Reform of Intellectual

Campaign between Sep. 1951 and
May 1952
Mobilized

college students to criticize

teachers and changed university curriculum

Socialist Transformation of the

Economy

From Success to Crisis: 19561965

The

four tensions within the

governing system

The role of Mao in the system

The social and political results of Sovietstyle economic development
The lack of new technique to mobilize
domestic capital formation
The tension between peasant cadres
and urban intelligentsia

 The

triggers

Khrushchevs attack on Stalin in 1956

Mao Zedong thought was dropped from
CCP constitution in 1956

 The

Anti-rightist Campaign in 1957

Mao unleashed intellectuals to criticize CCP

(Hundred Flowers movement) , resulted in
tensions
Mao decided to resolve this struggle
through dictatorial force
The results of Anti-rightist Campaign
No

more objections to the radical shift of

political and economic policies
Loss of skills of intellectuals to implement the
Soviet-type, highly centralized development
model
Increased decentralization and party
involvement with the economy

The Great Leap Forward

The

setting

The purge of intellectuals and the surge

of less-educated radicals
The need to find new ways to generate
domestic capital
The rising enthusiasm about the
potential results mass mobilization
might produce
The reaction against the Soviet
development strategy

 The

fundamentals behind Great Leap

Forward
The fundamental idea was that China could leap over
the normal stages of economic development through the
expenditure of extraordinary effort by the entire society
for a concentrated period of several years
The fundamental strategy was to mobilize the
peasants to provide themselves and provide the urban
economy
The fundamental emphases were egalitarianism,
experimentation, ideological fervor, mass mobilization,
and application of organization and will to the
accomplishment of technically impossible goals

The Lushan Clash

The

Lushan Conference in Summer

1959
Marshall Peng Dehuai criticizes the
excesses of the Great Leap Forward and
was purged

The

fatal results

Changed the rule of policy debate

among leaders

 Lin Biao replaced Peng Dehuai and tried to position

himself to succeed Mao, which contributed tensions and
infighting among top leadership
Radicalism surged anew in late 1959 and 1960
The national tragedy

Double blow of Agricultural collapse and loss of Soviet aid

Fundamental faith in ideology, organization, and the

masses
The incentives for falsifying information from the grass
roots

The

flaws in the governing system

Boundless political power of Mao

Inherent dynamics

The Increasing Tension

Emergency

measures after Great

Leap Forward
In the urban

Rationing of food and consumer goods; freeze people into

work units; strict residence registration

In the countryside

The

Breakage of Communes into small units

economic recovery

 Maos

resurgence in 1962

Mao feared the economic rehabilitation

policies would steer China away from
revolution
Mao advocated ideological commitment
and promoted egalitarianism and class
struggle
Mao increasingly relied on the Peoples
Liberation Army, headed by Lin Biao, to
achieve political goals

The Cultural Revolution: 19661976 Revolution

Maos goals in Cultural
To change the succession of leadership
To discipline the huge governing
bureaucracies
To expose Chinas youth to a
revolutionary experience
To make changes in various policy areas
The

Red Guard phase: 1966-1969

 Setting

1976

the succession: 1969-

The PLA took over the administration of

China
Lin Biaos attempt to secure power base
was undermined by Mao and Zhou Enlai
The seesaw battles between the
moderates headed by Zhou Enlai and
the radicals headed by Jiang Qing

Summary: The Maoist System

Mao

copied a governing system with

state or collective ownership of
means of production and a Leninisttype political structure that
suppressed any truly autonomous
social or economic organization

Mao

remained himself boundlessly

powerful in the governing system
which is the greatest weakness of
the Maoist system

Mao combined his control over the prevailing ideology with

great tactical political skill, ruthlessness in dealing with
enemies and his power

Mao relied on keeping people divided and off balance and

ultimately dependent on him to provide the right way to
escape from the countrys predicaments

Maoist system tried to isolate social groups for limiting

potential challenges from below

Maos strong belief in the inherent value of struggle led to

policies that subjected the citizenry to extraordinary levels
of violence

Mao made radical changes from 1949 to 1976 in its

strategies every five to ten years, a pattern of lurching
from politically induced crisis to crisis

3 Assessing Dengs rule

Maos successor Hua Guofeng

Succeeded Hua