China Flashcards
19th century opium wars
Century of humiliation
1839-1842 first opium war (Nanking denk ik)
1856-1860 second opium war (secessions)
IV. First Opium war - defeat to UK that forced trade opening
and cession of Hong Kong (1839-1842);
V. Second Opium war - defeat to UK, France and US that
forced trade opening (1856-1860);
Boxers, revolutions and Sun Yat-sen
1899-1901 Boxer rebellion
* Got taken down by western forces -> destroyed legitimacy of emperor among Chinese population
1911 Xinhai revolution, end of empire and start of China as a republic
1911-1925 Kuomintang(KMT) rule under Sun Yat-sen
Great leap forward 1958-1960
- Mass industrialization
- Small communes
- Was actually a failure because of wrong landbouw practices and small communes didn’t know what they were doing
Cultural revolution 1970s
- Anti intellectual
- Anti institutional(?)
- Anti authority
- Purify regime
- Get rid of opponents
1980s reforms and Tiananmen square protests
Deng Xiaoping 1979 – 1992 (reform and opening)
* Open economic policies
* Created capitalist system
1989 Tiananmen square protests
* People wanted political liberalization
* Mass demonstration
* Regime send in the army
Confucianism and democracy
- Political Vs. Personal confucian values;
- Hierarchy and respect for seniors;
- Conformism, aversion of conflict;
- Collective instead of individual identities;
- Support for authorities;
- Increase of liberal democratic values after generational shift;
One party state
Only one legitimate ruling party
Ideology: vanguard party, party takes leading role in developing revolution (communism; Leninism)(Marx believed masses would spontaneously revolt)
Pyramid structure: hierarchical organization
No direct elections or internal party democracy
Fusion of party and state
Party is present in all segments of society
Power vested in party or person?
Communist party (CCP)
Founded in 1921
Leninist, the party believes that it has a guiding role in communism and guiding the Chinese people to communism
Ideological transformation to capitalism, but only in economic aspect
90 million members
Nomenklatura system
Non-transparent structure
Reformers vs conservatives
Corruption problems
State council
Headed by premier and vice premiers(4) (high ranking PSC members)
Serves in tandem with president
Oversees approximately 25 ministries
Ministers can also have important functions in party
- similar to gov
National peoples congress (parliament)
- Highest organ of the state;
- Delegation of 3000 people;
- The 3000 elect a standing committee of 150 people and a chair;
- The delegates are elected indirectly by provincial people’s congress;
- Elected for five years;
- Elected indirectly by local assemblies;
- Seats once a year for two weeks;
- Main work done by Standing Committee;
- Top leader of NPC has to be a member of the CCP’S Politburo Standing Committee (Li
Zhanshu); - Ratifies policy done by central leaders;
End of 1970s, post cultural revolution
- Ideological exhaustion and disillusionment
- Economic stagnation
- Destruction of leadership norms
- A lost decade intellectually and educationally
1980s reforms of Deng Xiaoping
- Purge radical elements in party (such as gang of four)
- Declare basic end to class struggle
- Rehabilitate educational system
- Gradual liberalization of the economy
Hong kong protests
2014-2020
1847-1997 UK colony/territory
Since 1997 special administrative region
One country, two systems principle
Since 2014 protests against increasing centralization
2020 hong kong national security law
Civil war
VIII.Civil war (1927-1937);
|—> KMT leads —> “Long March” of CCP (1934-1935);
|
IX. Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945);
|
X. Continuation of the civil war (1945-1949);
|—> CCP leads —> KMT retreats to Taiwan;
Cleavages
- Difficult to politicise in the absence of fair and free elections;
- Religious cleavage: atheism and confucianism;
- Class cleavage (growing following increasing inequalities - state centralisation instead of
democratisation for working class); - Ethnic cleavage: suppressed (overlapping with centre-periphery cleavage);
President - head of state
President - Head of state
- Titular office;
- 1992-2012: Unofficial 10-year terms (Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao);
- 2018: Xi Jinping removes term limits;
Politburo standing committee
- Executive branch of the PCC;
- Bureau has 25 members;
- People that choose the relevant political positions;
- Weekly meetings headed by the secretary general of the party (Xi
Jinping); - Elect a senior group to take the most important decisions;
- The main center of power is the standing committee of the
politburo (6 members + general secretary - Xi Jinping);
National party congress
- The 20th National Congress (2022) had 2296 delegates;
- Parliament structure of the CCP;
- Seats once every five years;
- Delegates come together and vote for a central committee;
- Main work done by Central Committee;
- The official announcements of the changes in the politics is done
on this congress;
Regional government
- Different entities (provinces, autonomous regions and special
administrative regions); - Asymetrical decentralisation: different powers;
Regime legitimation
Regime legitimation
* 1949-1970s: communist ideology; authoritarian control;
* 1980s-now: Economic growth; authoritarian control; patriotic nationalist appeals (Chinese
Dream);
Transformation and stability
- End of 1970s (post cultural revolution):
- Ideological exhaustion and disillusionment;
- Economic stagnation;
- Destruction of leadership norms;
- A lost decade intellectual and educationally;
- 1980s - reforms by Deng Xiaoping:
- Purge radical elements in party;
- Declare basic end to class struggle;
- Rehabilitate educational system;
- Gradual liberalisation of the economy;
Corruption challenge
- Formal vs. informal sources of power:
|
|—> 1980s - liberalisation produces corruption;
|—> 2000s - decentralisation produces corruption;
|—> 2011 - Wukan protests again corruption;
|—> 2012 - Bo Xilai (Xi’s main rival) arrested and convicted; - Xi’s anti-corruption campaign - 1.4M punishments;
- Anti-corruption campaign or political purge;
Xi for life
- Reform under Deng Xiaoping after Mao experience (1992-2012);
|
|—>Fixed terms;
|—>Term limits;
|—>Retirement age;
|—>Delegation of power to Politburo and State council; - “Authoritarian resilience”: Xiaoping, Zemin, Jintao retired before death or coup;
- March 2018 - NPC abolishes term limits (back to personalistic rule);
- Why?
- Rules are unwritten.
- Ambiguity of authority and patron-client networks.
- Tiananmen legacy: fear of instability.
- No institutional or personal checks and balances.
- Failures of collective leadership under Jintao.
Xinjang concentration camps
- Following independence aspirations by Uighur population;
- Official narrative: “resocialisation”;
- Testimonies of tortures and forced sterilisation;
- since 2017
