Paper – II, China’s Political System

S.H

THE IDEOLOGICAL BASIS OF THE CHINESE CONSTITUTION

Nature of the Chinese Revolution :

A study of the constitutional system of Communist China must recognize the unique character of
the revolution which brought the communists to power in October 1949. Both in its theory and
methods, the Chinese revolution differed from the Russian revolution of 1917 in several respects.
Unlike the Russian revolution, it was, in essence, an agrarian revolution in which the urban industrial
workers played a minor part. It was the result of a prolonged struggle carried out in the countryside, the
tactics of the revolution being worked out by Mao Zedong after the disastrous failure of the earlier
attempts to reproduce in China a revolution along the lines followed in Russia. Mao concentrated his
efforts on the countryside for bringing the country under communist control; he believed that the cities
would automatically fall to the communists if they succeeded in capturing the country surrounding
them. The success of the Chinese revolution gave Mao the status of a principal theoretician after Lenin,
his achievement lying in the application of the principles and techniques of Marxism-Leninism to the
particular conditions of China. This has made Chinese communism “quite genuinely Chinese and not
something imported from outside”. It is communism consistent in many respects, with the authoritarian
tradition of the Chinese social system. The deep seated Confucian belief in an ordered and more or less
regimented society helped the communists in imposing a new totalitarianism on the people of China.

People’s Democracy :

If communism has assumed a peculiarly indigenous character in China, so has the constitutional
and political system that has been established in the country by its communist rulers. They have not
adopted the ‘Soviet’ system of Russia. Instead, they have developed a new form of state system
described as “People’s Democracy”. The system is neither democratic in the accepted sense of the term
nor is it, in any real sense, a people’s system. Nevertheless, it does represent an interesting political
experiment and is a major contribution to the communist theory of government. It differs in some
important ways from the Marxist-Leninist conception of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The Chinese
political system has undoubtedly been greatly influenced by the theory and practice of the Soviet Union,
but it does not conform to any rigid doctrinaire pattern. On the other hand, it is largely the product of
China’s peculiar circumstances. It is significant that on coming to power in October 1949, the Chinese
communists proclaimed a ‘Peoples’ Republic’ and not a ‘Soviet Republic’. People’s Democracy is an
important concept also because it served as a model for smaller communist states like Vietnam which
have followed the Chinese path both in the achievement of their revolutions and in the shaping of their
political system.

Marxism-Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions :

In common with the constitutions of other communist countries, the Constitution of the People’s
Republic of China is based on a definite ideology. The principles embodied in this constitution were
worked out by Mao Zedong before the Revolution of 1949 and were set out in a number of his writings
principally in his On New Democracy (1940). These principles are firmly rooted in Marxism-Leninism
but have been shrewdly adapted to suit the conditions prevailing in China. It was Mao’s ability to adjust
orthodox Marxist tenets to the Chinese situation that has made On New Democracy a major Marxist text.
“It is a successful attempt to push Marxism into the Chinese scene and to transform it into a political
philosophy and a set of social and economic theories which will in fact work in the context of the
Chinese Revolution”
In On New democracy, Mao accepts the Marxist theory of a two-stage Revolution, the first
covering the change from feudalism to socialism and the second marking the transition from socialism
to communism. However, he asserted that in the peculiar conditions of China, the two-stages of the
Revolution “can be blended in a continuous process”. According to him, this revolution can be achieved
by an alliance of all progressive classes, viz, the proletariat, the peasantry, the national capitalists and
the petty bourgeoisie including intellectuals. This alliance is necessary only during the struggle for
 Paper – II, China’s Political System
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power and during the transitional stage prior to the attainment of socialism. This technique of four-
class alliance is regarded as a major contribution by Mao to the theory and tactics of communist
revolution.
Based on this approach, the Chinese Constitution of 1954 provided for a form of government in
which power was ostensibly shared among the four classes mentioned above. However, although it is
not clearly spelt out in the Constitution, the four-class coalition operated under the direction and
control of the Communist Party of China. During the period of transition, steady progress towards full
scale socialism was to be aimed at. When this aim was achieved, the social structure would have been so
completely transformed as to make the so-called ‘coalition’ unnecessary and the ground would be ready
for the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat. This theory, first set out in On New Democracy,
is re-stated with some modifications and elaborations in On Coalition Government (1945) and On the
People’s Democratic Dictatorship (1949).
The Constitution of 1975 makes no reference, direct or indirect, to the four-class alliance and
proclaims China to be “a socialist state of the dictatorship of the proletariat”. While there was no shift
from the 1954 constitution, the 1975 Constitution reflects the internal and international situation of
Red (communist) China. The people are warned against the “dangers of capitalist restoration”, and
proclaims, more unequivocally than the 1954 Constitution, the pivotal position held by the Communist
Party in the Chinese political system.
The 1978 Constitution, which made several changes to the 1975 Constitution, stated its
objective as the “Consolidation of the socialist economic base and development of the production forces
at high speed”. It accepted “Socialist Democracy as the goal which was to be achieved by arousing the
socialist enthusiasm of the people of all our nationalities to strive for the fulfillment of the central task
for the new period.” The 1978 Constitution expressed full faith in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism and
Mao Zedong’s thought. It prescribed that all people of the state should study Marxism-Leninism,
wholeheartedly serve the people, endeavour to perfect their professional competence, take active part
in collective productive labour, accept supervision by the masses etc. It accepts the paramount role of
the Communist Party. It declared that the Communist Party of China was the core of the leadership of
the whole Chinese people and “the working class exercised leadership over the state through its
vanguard, the Communist Party”.
The 1982 Constitution accepted Marxism-Leninism-Maoism but, alongside, it accepted a new
need for liberalisation, decentralisation, modernisation and market socialism. It effected a separation
between the Government and the Party. It attempted to give a new orientation to the Chinese political
culture, Liberalisation of the economy involving a multi-faceted economic system (socialist market
economy) and more openness in Chinese politics. The Constitution of 1982 and the features it
incorporated still continues to guide the activities and policies of the People’s Republic of China in the
21st century.

Nature of the State in Red China :

The state system established in China after the Communist victory in 1949 is officially described
as a people’s democratic dictatorship which is claimed to be a form of people’s democracy. The theory
on which this form of state organisation is based was sketched by Mao Zedong in his On New democracy
and was more fully expounded in On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship (1949). The doctrine is, in
part, a skilful adaptation of the post-war communist theory of ‘people’s democracy’ as practiced in
eastern Europe, but was, in the main, evolved by Mao in the light of the experience of the Chinese
Communist themselves and is, therefore, regarded as an important Chinese contribution to the
communist theory of government. Mao’s doctrine postulated a “joint revolution of workers, peasants,
petty bourgeoisie and the new class of national capitalists namely capitalists in sympathy with the
socialist objectives of the revolution”. Even before the establishment of the Republic in 1949 the
communists had employed the concept in the areas under their control.
Mao held the view that because of the peculiar situation in China, the nature of the state during
the period of transition would have to be different from the Marxist-Leninist dictatorship of the
proletariat established in the USSR after the 1917 revolution. The people’s democratic dictatorship (of
China) is, of course, as much of a dictatorship as the dictatorship of the proletariat. But it is claimed to
 Paper – II, China’s Political System
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be democratic in a different manner from that of the Soviet-type dictatorship of the proletariat. In the
Soviet system of the USSR power is exercised exclusively by the ‘representative’ of the proletariat and
the peasantry; all other classes being excluded and disenfranchised. The experienced of the Chinese
communists with the Soviet system in the early 1930s was not very happy. The people’s democratic
dictatorship, therefore, continues the principle of four-class coalition successfully employed during the
revolutionary struggle for political power. Instead of the Soviets, the Chinese political system is based
on the people’s congresses at all levels of administration. They are people’s congresses in the sense that
they contain the representatives of all classes and groups included in the category ‘people’. The classes
excluded from this category and, therefore, from the exercise of political rights and from representation
in the administration are imperialists, feudalists and bureaucratic capitalists. Members of these classes
are said to be enemies of the ‘people’. Since they cannot be assimilated in the new revolutionary social
order, they must be re-educated or liquidated.
It is only in the Preamble to the Constitution of 1954 that reference was made to the Communist
Party. This seems to offer a remarkable contrast with the Constitution of the USSR which formally and
unequivocally proclaimed the supreme position occupied by the Communist Party in that country’s
constitutional system. The difference, however, is one of form rather than of substance. Abundant
evidence is available to show that in Red China, as in the USSR, leadership of the Communists Party
means, in practice, that “effective power and complete political initiative now lie with the Communist
Party of China”. Even in the early years following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China
when non-communists elements were allowed to occupy important positions in the government, the
communists made no effort to conceal the fact the policy decisions on all major issues were made by the
Central Committee of the Communist Party. The minor political parties were in fact merely small
political associations of organised fellow travelers. They had no independent powers and they had no
programme distinctly different from those of the Communist Party. They were little more than show-
pieces and useful appendages used as devices for manipulating and controlling important groups such
as non-communist intellectuals, businessmen and civil servants. However in the years just after the
Cultural Revolution non-communists elements have largely been squeezed out of positions of authority.
The façade of coalition was used by the Chinese Communists for its practical utility in the
country itself and for its advertisement value abroad. The procedure had also been adopted in order to
give people outside China the impression of a democratic multi-party government. It had also been an
asset to the Chinese communists in the sense that it was meant to convince Asians that Red China was
more democratic than other totalitarian regimes.
The 1982 Constitution expresses full faith in Marxism-Leninism and Maoism. But at the same
time it indirectly admitted some past mistakes when it seeks to right the wrongs that resulted from the
Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. It advocated the need to maintain the process of streamlining the
institutional framework that had been initiated in the post-Mao years. The Constitution of 1982
continues to be a constitution of a Socialist state that aims at further development of the socialist
system.

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