china political control

Question 1

CCP and how china is governed

Answer 1

• communism is political ideology that dominates Chinese life
• CCP led by Xi Jinping, ccp in control since 1949, no effective opposition allowed
• national peoples congress meet once a year as a way of checking up on CCP, described as ‘rubber stamp’ as 70% of members are CCP, meant to be able to make laws etc but really, laws are made by politburo standing committee and passed to national peoples congress for approval
• previously presidents are allowed a max of two terms in china, but Xi, put forward constitutional changes to be voted on (2 voted against, 3 abstained and 1 spoiled) now he can effectively rule for life
• shows not really a democratic vote

Question 2

opposition to CCP

Answer 2

• eight other parties exist in china so they can reject claims that they are a ‘one party state’
• however, they introduced village elections where non CCP members can be voted but any of these elected candidates are overseen by a CCP executive, no real power
• direct voting is only allowed at the lowest level of pep,es congress, some independent candidates are elected but after first level, the CCP appoint the officials

Question 3

lack of opportunity to criticise CCP

Answer 3

-treatment of Falun Gong, religious practices, CCP paranoid about growing support, before being banned in 1999, Falun Gong members sent to re-education camps, and prancers of Falun Gong persistently claimed that CCP had been organ harvesting Falun Gong prisoners

• chinese claim tibet has been part of china for 700 years, tibetans say until 1950 it was a sovereign state
• china sent troops in 1951 to end independence there
• dalai lama, m=forced into exile and lives in neighbouring India, hundreds of monks and Dalai supporters are imprisoned by the Chinese government, violation od fundamental human rights
• media censorship- china has 25000 newspapers and 12000 radio stations, no one can report anything on politics without having cleared it with the party
• twitter facebook google and youtube all banned
• in 2015, 5 booksellers from Hong Kong disappeared, thought to have secretly been taken to china for being critical of the Chinese authorities. in January one of them appeared on TV, confessing to a drink driving charge from 12 years ago, perhaps a forced confession

Question 4

conclusion

Answer 4

in conclusion, chinas political system offers very little chance to hold the government to account. the main justification for this is the main parliament that is in place to alter constitution is completely controlled by CCP members as almost all of the senior members belong to the CCP. this is further supported by the fact that members of the public who speak against the CCP like Liu Xiabo, who was a co-author of a statement calling to end a one-party rule was sentenced to 11 years in jail for ‘inciting subversion’. although there are ways in which people can participate by being elected to the national peoples congress or local town elections, both these roles have very little control as there are both still overlooked by the CCP and you would be unable to speak against their policies as fear of being labeled a dissident. overall the evidence clearly shows it is an undemocratic and controlling system with little room for scrutiny