Ninth Edition

China’s Political
System
Modernization and Tradition

June Teufel Dreyer

University of Miami

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 Dedication
To the memory of my parents,
Anna Elizabeth Waldhauer
Paul Albert Teufel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dreyer, June Teufel, 1939–

China’s political system : modernization and tradition / June Teufel Dreyer, University of Miami.
— Ninth Edition.
   p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-98181-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-205-98181-X (alk. paper)
1. China—Politics and government—1949– I. Title.
JQ1510.D74 2014
320.451—dc23
2014000689
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 10: 0-205-98181-X

ISBN 13: 978-0-205-98181-6

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 Brief Contents
1 Introduction 1

2 The Chinese Tradition 25

3 Reformers, Warlords, and Communists 47

4 The Communist Road to Power 66

5 PRC Politics Under Mao: 1949–1976 85

6 PRC Politics in the Post-Mao Era: 1976–2013 113

7 The Politics of the Economy 148

8 Crime and Punishment: The Legal System of the PRC 179

9 The Role of the Military 204

10 Education 229

11 Quality-of-Life Issues: Health, Demography, and the

Environment 252

12 Conformity and Dissent: The Arts, the Media, and Social

Control 275

13 Ethnic Minorities and National Integration 297

14 Foreign Policy 329

15 Conclusions 358

iii

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 Detailed Contents
Preface x

1 Introduction 1
Modernization and Chinese Civilization 1
Theories of Analysis of Chinese Politics 8
Theoretical Analysis in the Early Years of the PRC 10
Theories Engendered by the Cultural Revolution 15
Post-Mao Theories of Analysis 21
Conclusions 23 • Suggestions for Further Reading 24

2 The Chinese Tradition 25

Basic Characteristics 25
The Governmental Structure of Traditional China 31
The Examination System 35
Literature and Art 36
The Role of Law in Traditional China 36
The Military 38
The Barbarian Problem 39
Interpretations of Chinese History 39
Implications for Industrialization 42
Conclusions 45 • Suggestions for Further Reading 46

3 Reformers, Warlords, and Communists 47

The New Invasion 47
The Self-Strengthening Movement 49
Reform and Revolution 53
The Reformers 54
The Reactionaries 55
The Revolutionaries 56
The Kuomintang 61
Suggestions for Further Reading 65

iv

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 Detailed Contents   v

4 The Communist Road to Power 66

The Early Years: 1919–1923 66
The Period of Soviet Control: 1923–1931 68
The Jiangxi Soviet: 1931–1934 70
The Long March: 1934–1935 72
The Xi’an Incident: 1936 75
The Second United Front: 1936–1941 77
Civil War and Victory: 1941–1949 82
Suggestions for Further Reading 84

5 PRC Politics Under Mao: 1949–1976 85

Consolidation of Power: 1949–1955 85
Establishing the Organs of Power 89
The Hundred Flowers Period: 1956–1957 94
The Great Leap Forward and Its Aftermath: 1958–1961 97
The Socialist Education Movement: 1962–1966 102
The Cultural Revolution: 1966–1976 104
Reconstruction: 1970–1976 109
Suggestions for Further Reading 112

6 PRC Politics in the Post-Mao Era: 1976–2013 113

Interregnum: 1976–1978 113
Deng Ascendant 116
The Legacy of Mao 119
Political Realignment and Policy Readjustment 119
The Tiananmen Demonstrations, 1989 128
The Third Generation: China Under Jiang Zemin 133
The Three Represents 134
Civic Organizations 135
Changing Central–Local Relationships 136
The Fourth Generation in Power 139
The Fifth Generation Moves to Center Stage 142
Conclusions 144 • Suggestions for Further Reading 147

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 vi   Detailed Contents

7 The Politics of the Economy 148

Introduction 148
The Early Years: 1949–1950 149
The Socialist Transformation of Agriculture: 1949–1978 150
Industrial Policy in the Maoist Era 154
Maoist Economic Policies Assessed 156
Economic Policy Under Deng Xiaoping 157
Agricultural Reforms 158
The Private Sector 160
More Responsibility for State Enterprises 161
Reforming the Price System 162
Reforming the Reforms 164
New Problems for Deng’s Successors 168
Future Concerns 173
Conclusions 176 • Suggestions for Further Reading 178

8 Crime and Punishment:

The Legal System of the PRC 179
Less-than-Peaceful Coexistence of the Societal
and Jural Models: 1949–1953 180
The Jural Model in Ascendance: 1954–1957 181
Resurgence of the Societal Model: 1957–1965 183
The Societal Model Rampant: 1966–1976 184
Law and Justice in the Post-Mao Era: Return to the Jural Model 186
The New Legal System 186
Legal Developments 189
The Trial Process 189
Mediation 191
Petitions 193
Reform Through Labor (RTL) 194
The Penal System 194
Conclusions 202 • Suggestions for Further Reading 203

9 The Role of the Military 204

Party and Army 204
Assessing the Maoist Model 207

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 Detailed Contents   vii

The Influence of the Korean War on the Pla 208

The Revolt Against Professionalism 210
Professionalism Returns 215
The Effect of the June Fourth Incident on the Pla 220
The Military in the Post-Deng Era 221
Conclusions 227 • Suggestions for Further Reading 228

10 Education 229
Devising a System 229
The Drive for Egalitarianism and Return to Expertise 232
Redness Revisited: The Cultural Revolution 233
Egalitarians versus Experts: The Search for a Synthesis 236
The Search for Academic Excellence 237
Conclusions 249 • Suggestions for Further Reading 251

11 Quality-of-Life Issues: Health, Demography,

and the Environment 252
Health 252
Demography 259
The Environment 268
Conclusions 273 • Suggestions for Further Reading 274

12 Conformity and Dissent: The Arts, the Media,

and Social Control 275
Artist and Society in China 275
The Party, Art, and Social Protest 276
Post-1949 Control Mechanisms 277
Repression and Reaction 279
Culture and the Cultural Revolution 281
The Arts Under Deng Xiaoping 283
Restrained Dissent 283
Protest Gains Momentum 284
Experimenting with Capitalism in the Arts 286
The Campaign Against Spiritual Pollution 286
Looming Confrontation 287
The Tiananmen Demonstrations and Their Aftermath 288

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 viii   Detailed Contents

Expression, Repression, and Social Control 289

Conclusions 295 • Suggestions for Further Reading 296

13 Ethnic Minorities and National Integration 297

China’s Minority Peoples 297
Ethnicity in Communist Ideology 304
Minorities Policy in Practice 304
The Early Years: 1949–1957 304
The Great Leap Forward and Its Aftermath: 1959–1965 310
The Cultural Revolution: 1966–1971 312
Return to Pluralism: 1971–1977 314
Post-Mao Minorities’ Policy 314
Reform Produces Problems 315
External Factors 318
Repression Increases 318
Genuine Autonomy as a Possible Solution 324
Ending the Current System as a Solution 326
Conclusions 327 • Suggestions for Further Reading 328

14 Foreign Policy 329

Determinants 329
Tradition 329
Ideology 331
Capabilities 332
Goals 333
The Formulation of Foreign Policy 333
Chinese Foreign Relations: An Overview 336
The “Lean to One Side” Policy: 1949–1954 336
The Bandung Spirit: 1954–1957 338
Resurgent Nationalism and Isolation: 1957–1969 340
Global Power Politics: 1969–Present 344
Conclusions 355 • Suggestions for Further Reading 357

15 Conclusions 358
Suggestions for Further Reading 370

Useful Websites 371

Credits 372
Index 374

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 Illustrations
Figures
Figure 2.1 High-Level Equilibrium Trap 45
Figure 5.1 Organization of the Chinese Communist Party 90
Figure 5.2 Organization of the Government of the People’s Republic of China 91
Figure 7.1 Tax Revenue as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 168
Figure 7.2 Growth of China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 169
Figure 7.3 China’s Trade Surpluses, 1997–2013 170
Figure 7.4 The Widening Urban–Rural Income Gap 171
Figure 7.5 Composition of China’s GDP 172
Figure 8.1 Organizational System of the People’s Courts of the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) 189
Figure 9.1 Recent Chinese Defense Budgets and Inflation 223
Figure 9.2 Military System of the People’s Republic of China 225
Figure 10.1 Selected Characters, Simplified Forms, and Pinyin Pronunciations 231
Figure 10.2 Spending on Education as a Percentage of GDP 2002–2012 251
Figure 11.1 Increasing Urbanization, 1990–2012 (in millions) 52.6 as of 2012 263
Figure 11.2 Proportion of Recorded Male to Female Birth 266
Figure 11.3 Total Population and Natural Birth Rate 267
Figure 13.1 The Administration of Minorities Work in China 307
Figure 14.1 Organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 335

Maps
Political Map of China xiv
Map 2.1 (A) Bronze Age China during the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1523–1028 b.c.) 26
(B) Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) 27
Map 3.1 The Northern Expedition of the Kuomintang 63
Map 4.1 Routes of the Long March 75
Map 13.1 China’s Minority Nationalities 303

Tables
Table 2.1 The Chinese Dynasties 29
Table 6.1 Size of Politburos and Politburo Standing Committees, 12th–18th Party
Congresses 140
Table 6.2 Politburo Standing Committee CCP 18th Party Congress
(in rank order) 144
Table 13.1 Population of China According to Ethnic Group in Censuses
1953–2010 298
ix

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 Preface
As the People’s Republic of China approached the midpoint of its seventh
decade, its economy continued to thrive and the country was unequivocally
accepted as one of the world’s preeminent powers. At the same time, major
problems loomed with the potential to undermine these successes. Domestically,
communism was moribund as an ideology, and the Chinese Communist Party
had lost its legitimacy in the eyes of many of the PRC’s citizens. Corruption
was endemic in the economic and political systems. Rapid economic growth
had been accompanied by a widening of income inequality and increasing so-
cial instability. Pollution filled the air of many urban areas and poisoned the
waterways. Although most people appeared content to enjoy the benefits of in-
creasing prosperity, vocal minorities of farmers, workers, and ethnic minorities
voiced their dissatisfaction with the status quo. Harsh punishments were meted
out to dissidents, not infrequently in trials that seemed to violate the provi-
sions of the country’s constitution. Better laws were passed but not always en-
forced. A party, which had come to power on behalf of the rights of the workers
and the peasants seemed to have turned its back on them. Although the slogan
“serve the people” remained, party and government leaders seemed now to fear
the people.
Externally, foreign nations worried that their economies might be swal-
lowed by the Chinese juggernaut, and complained that Beijing was manipulat-
ing the country’s currency to create trade imbalances in China’s favor. They also
voiced concern about the motives behind rapidly rising defense budgets when
the PRC faced no external threat and protested cyberspying that was shown
to have originated in China. Foreign analysts began to question their initial
assumption that economic pluralism would lead inexorably to political plu-
ralism and an evolution toward liberal democracy. In some areas, the Chinese
system had become more rather than less oppressive. Moreover, the state also
reinforced its role in the economy to some degree.
Whether the genuine achievements of the past sixty-plus years can be con-
tinued is a question much debated by scholars of China both domestic and for-
eign. The present problems could represent no more than the growing pains of
a greater and more powerful state. At the other extreme, they could portend
the collapse of the current system. Or the country could be caught in a middle-
income trap.
The genesis of the first edition of China’s Political System grew out of my
own efforts to understand how the communist government of China, having
only recently, in the long sweep of Chinese history, come to power, could trans-
form an impressive, ancient civilization into an industrialized, socialist state.
My aim has been to describe and analyze China’s political system, taking
as leitmotif the efforts of successive leaderships to harmonize elements of the
country’s unique indigenous culture with formulas for industrialization and

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 Preface   xi

modernization that originally evolved in the West. The nineteenth-century para-

digm “Chinese learning for the essence; Western learning for practical use” reso-
nates with Mao Zedong’s injunction to “walk on two legs”—the modern and the
traditional—as does Deng Xiaoping’s search for “socialism with ­Chinese char-
acteristics.” Over the past half century, other and related themes have become
prominent in Chinese politics. As the leadership of the People’s R
­ epublic shifted
emphasis from revolutionary ideals to the more mundane but perhaps even
more challenging business of governing, and from a socialist, planned economy
to a market-based system, the question of how much of its communist heritage
it should retain has had to be addressed as well. Elements of retraditionalization
coexist with trends toward modernization and globalization.
The intended audience for China’s Political System is upper-level under-
graduates specializing in political science and history or simply interested per-
sons who want to learn more about China. The author hopes that this will be
an enjoyable experience: Academic jargon has been minimized.

New to This Edition

The ninth edition has been updated to include:
• significant political developments through early 2014;
• policy changes since the Eighteenth Party Congress and the Twelfth
­National People’s Congress;
• recent legal and economic developments and statistics based on the latest
(2013) edition of the China Statistical Handbook;
• expanded coverage of changing relationships among central, provincial,
and local governments;
• the impact of enhanced citizen participation in the political process;
• effects of the decelerating economic growth rate.

Features
A summary of the different ways in which Chinese politics and history have
been analyzed is followed by brief overviews of the traditional Chinese sys-
tem, its breakdown, and the rise of communism, followed by a more detailed
treatment of the characteristics and major events of the communist era. Because
politics has permeated virtually every sphere of Chinese society since 1949, an
analysis of how politics has impinged on these different spheres forms the ma-
jor building blocks of the text—economics; the legal system; the military; litera-
ture, art, and journalism; and so forth. Although the list of topics that might be
considered is long, the academic semester is limited, and hence the number of
chapters has been set at fifteen—approximately one for each week of the aver-
age semester. Resisting the urge to be encyclopedic has meant not providing
separate chapters for topics that some might prefer, such as ideology, human
rights, and the role of women, which are treated as subthemes in other chapters.
A concluding chapter integrates these different areas, assesses the successes and

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 xii   Preface

failures of the Chinese communist system, and sketches out possible scenarios
for the future. Suggestions for additional reading—limited to five titles, on the
advice of my editor—appear at the end of each chapter.
This text is available in a variety of formats—digital and print. To learn
more about Pearson programs, pricing, and customization options, visit www.
pearsonhighered.com.

Acknowledgments
The author very much appreciates the advice of many people. In addition to
Evelyn Fazio, who suggested the first edition, these include Eric Stano, Vikram
Mukhija, Melissa Mashburn, Maggie Brobeck, Courtney Turcotte of Pearson;
Doug Bell and Murugesh Rajkumar Namasivayam of PremediaGlobal, and
­fellow China-watchers Jerome Cohen, the late Edward Dreyer, Jane Duckett, Ed
Friedman, Bruce Gilley, Tom Gold, Baogang Guo, Bill Heaton, Cheng Li, Perry
Link, Jim Nafziger, Stan Rosen, Jim Seymour, and Suisheng Zhao. Special thanks
to the University of Miami Senior Vice-Provost William Scott Green for having
his camera ready when I saw the perfect photo to illustrate the subtitle of this
book: Shanghai’s Confucius temple in the foreground with dilapidated Mao-era
housing behind and new modern skyscrapers at the back. I have also greatly
profited from the collective discussions of several e-mail groups. Thanks also to
those of you who responded to my call for suggestions for future editions. Please
continue to send them: my e-mail address remains jdreyer@miami.edu.
June Teufel Dreyer
Coral Gables, Florida

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 About the Author
June Teufel Dreyer is professor of political science at the University of ­Miami,
Coral Gables, Florida, a past commissioner of the congressionally established
U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission, and a fellow of the
Foreign Policy Research Institute. She is the author of China’s Forty Millions:
Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic
of China (Harvard University Press), editor of Chinese Defense and Foreign
Policy (Paragon House) and Asian-Pacific Regional Defense (Paragon House),
and co-editor of U.S.–China Relations in the 21st Century (Lexington) and
Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region
(M.E. Sharpe).

xiii

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 R U S S I A
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A01_DREY1816_09_SE_FM.indd 14
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BHUTAN Guizhou Fujian

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0 300 600 900 MILES

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Political Map of China. Marked cities are independently attached, i.e.

under the direct control of the federal government.

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