Studying Chinese Politics in an Age of Specialization

The relationship between area studies and political science is fraught with tradeoffs. In particular, a danger exists that the field of Chinese politics is being hollowed out because (a) there are many islands of highly specialized research with few bridges between them; and (b) more and more Chinese politics scholars are engaged in debates in which the ‘other side’ is no longer a China scholar but instead a colleague in the discipline. At a time when China's economic growth and prominence in world affairs have generated remarkable interest inside and outside the academy, few scholars are willing to take a stab at characterizing the polity or addressing other, equally large questions. Further thought is needed about the ‘terms of enlistment’ for China scholars in political science, in an era when ever more-focused studies and greater participation in disciplinary debates have become the norm.     

新型政党制度的政治功能及其治理优势——基于中国民主政治内在规定性的分析

国家权力来自人民是现代民主政治的核心理念。如何实现人民的选择,保障人民权利成为民主政治发展的重大关切。中国民主政治类属于人民民主,其价值理念与历史实践内在赋予了执政党以领导核心地位,并要求以民主集中制为组织原则,实现广泛、真实的民主。中国新型政党制度作为中国民主政治的一项基本制度安排,在利益代表、政治参与和民主监督等政治功能方面与民主政治的规定性要素相契合,并在实践过程中体现出政治平衡、政治稳定、政治整合的显著治理优势,为社会主义民主政治发展与国家治理体系和治理能力现代化建设奠定稳固基础。     

Did Policy Experimentation in China Always Seek Efficiency? A case study of Wenzhou financial reform in 2012

Policy experimentation has been widely considered a ‘magic bullet’ of policy improvement and key to economic prosperity in China. This article, however, argues that policy experimentation in China does not always seek policy efficiency. Rather, it can be manipulated as a political symbol without actually affecting practices. By taking a case study on Wenzhou's financial reform, this article illustrates that local policy experimentation can serve as a mechanism for the central government to legitimately delay reform practices—in the case of Wenzhou's financial reform in 2012, out of a desire to maintain socio-economic stability during the power succession at the 18th Party Congress. In this reform, socio-economic stability was deemed more important than developing a sustainable and effective long-term policy. This article provides a new perspective on understanding policy experimentation in China by proposing the idea of ‘symbolic reforms’.     

‘Peaceful Evolution’, ‘Regime Change’ and China's Political Security

This article explores the enduring impact of the Western strategy of ‘peaceful evolution’ (heping yanbian) on China's political security. This non-military strategy is given an added significance in an era of the lone superpower, when American military might can provide the buttress. ‘Peaceful evolution’ can also overlap with the US notion of ‘regime change’, which often entails military intervention to bring about a desired political transformation in a particular state. Specifically, the strategy of ‘peaceful evolution’ still constitutes a serious threat to China because it needs to continue opening up to the West for the sake of economic modernisation.     

论宪法解释——兼评中国宪法解释体制的困境和出路

法治是建设富强中国的必经之路,依法治国首先应当是依宪治国。宪法是对国家权力的限制和理性化,是自由的政治生活进程的保障,是人权的保障。任何遵守法治原则的政治共同体中,宪法解释都是一项关系万千重的问题。中国正面临司法改革的转折点,宪法的解释是违宪审查的必经环节,构建我国的违宪审查制度首先需要面对的就是宪法解释的问题。     

Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei's proposal for political reform

This paper is a response to Pan Wei's rule of law regime reform proposal. It agrees with Pan that the direction of political reform taken and discussed inside China is indeed different from the democratization that has been pushed by outside pro-democracy activists, including Chinese dissidents. While some Chinese scholars and think-tank analysts talk about political reform, they are not proposing to democratize the polity but to make the single party rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) more efficient or to provide it with a more solid legal base. They have looked upon political liberalization without democratization as an alternative solution to many of China's problems related to the extant authoritarian system. Pan Wei's proposal for building a rule-of-law regime is a representative work of this group of Chinese intellectuals.     

The Closed Doors of Courts: China's judicial filtration of financial litigations

In China, courts may refuse to accept certain legal actions involving financial matters without any solid or explicit legal grounds. An analysis of such a phenomenon should help scholars to understand the functioning logic of China's judicial power. This article suggests that there are a number of reasons behind the filtration system, including a lack of applicable legal rules, a weak ability of the courts to understand complicated financial matters, the background of the economic system transition, the political consideration of ‘maintaining social stability’ and judiciary self-interest. Filtration has inevitably had a negative effect on China's financial markets, and reform is thus necessary.     

The Localism of Local Leadership Cadres in Reform Shanxi

The changing face of China's politics is to be found as much in the cadre force as in the categories of ‘new rich’ engendered by economic reform and rapid development. A series of interviews undertaken in 1996 and 1997 with local cadres—at sub-provincial, county and section levels—in Shanxi Province provides evidence as to the extent of change and continuity in their social backgrounds, careers and political attitudes. Analysis focuses in particular on five common hypotheses about the cadre force in reform China: that they are conservative upholders of the status quo; a priviligentsya; imposed ‘from without’; the source of a ‘new class'; and one which has come in the reform era to be dominated by ‘technocrats' (rather than former revolutionaries). Though local political and administrative leadership in the 1990s appears to have become more localist, and even in some senses parochial, such analysis must be kept in perspective. The local cadre force is considerably less local, parochial and ‘privileged’ than their counterpart local business elites; and the agency of the provincial organisation of the Chinese Communist Party is still very much in evidence.     

执政能力与执政诚信

加强执政能力建设是当前我党面临着的一个紧迫课题,要切实提高我党的执政能力和执政水平,就必须充分认识执政诚信建设的重要意义。执政诚信是执政能力的关键因素;执政诚信是执政合法性的基础;执政诚信是执政能力评估的重要尺度;执政诚信是国家和社会道德价值导向的指南针;执政诚信是国家和社会的稳定剂。加强执政诚信建设就必须清除认识障碍、厌德障碍、利益障碍、思维障碍、自省障碍和上梁障碍等六大障碍。     

From the Language of Class to the Rhetoric of Development: discourses of ‘nationality’ and ‘ethnicity’ in China

In the People's Republic of China's (PRC) continuous state-building project since its establishment in 1949, the notion of nation and nationality (minzu) has been uninterruptedly utilised by the leading elite in its political programmes. The notion of the ‘nationality question’ (minzu wenti) was employed especially for addressing the issues of the officially identified minority nationalities at the time when the multinational nature of the state was made fundamental. However, how a multinational character of the Chinese state is interpreted by the state elite and how this interpretation is shaped by their policies have arguably changed along with the political and economic preferences of the regime. This paper aims to explore the meaning of ‘nationality question’ during the period of socialist construction, and traces the shift in its notion during the reform period which started in the 1970s. The essay pays attention to the change in the preferred corresponding English term of minzu wenti. I argue that the substitution of the ‘nationality question’ term, which was dominant during the socialist period, with the concept of the ‘ethnic question’ during the reform period points not only to the changing character of the government policies towards minorities, but also legitimises them as the only suitable and rightful in the context of economic reforms.     

Protection of Women's Rights in the National Governance of Contemporary China

The development of women's rights is a specific field in modern national governance.The essence of women-related issues in modern times lies in the political and legal systems based on gender inequality and the unequal male-female relationship established by male chauvinism, which has further created domination over and prejudice against women.Since the founding of the New China, especially after the launch of reform and opening-up, the Communist party of China and the state have attached great importance to the protection of gender equality, bringing about the continued improvement of the protection of women's rights.However, due to various economic and social barriers, there is still a long way to go to achieve full gender equality.To understand the issue of women's rights from the perspective of national governance and apply the concept of modern national governance to the protection of women's rights, it is imperative to pay great attention to the substantive equality concept in the protection of women's right during the national governance process, take empowering women as an important approach, raise women's gender equality awareness, and recognize, grant, enhance and guarantee women's individual rights .     

从任务型自治到民主合作型治理——基于上海市社区调研的分析

调查发现,国家政权为推动城市基层治理而设定的街政居治的治理格局并没有真正建立起来,相反却呈现出任务型自治的非健康状态。面对任务型自治遗留下来的一系列问题,如何通过强化理性、权利、责任、合作,以实现街居之间的和谐互动、共生双赢,是当前建构城市街居治理体制的现实问题。本文认为,民主合作型治理可以避免街居之间的合作惰性或合作匮乏的困境,是构建合理的街居治理体制的理性选择。     

China as a latecomer: Toward a global logic of the open policy

The paper reviews a number of substantive issue‐areas in China's foreign economic sector (the foreign trade system, industrial and geographical targeting, foreign investment regulations, and the foreign exchange regime), finding that conventional mercantilist accounts of China's recent success in world markets are overstated. In fact, the paper argues that the most salient changes occurring in China's foreign economic sector are now in many respects beyond the immediate control of the state. In this vein, it is argued that most scholars have seriously underestimated the structuring impact of the international political economy on China's reform and opening. Indeed, the paper maintains that there is a ‘global’ logic to the evolution of the Open Policy, just as others have identified an ‘economic’ or ‘political’ logic to foreign trade reform, the creation of the SEZs, liberalization of investment laws, the loosening of foreign exchange controls, and other such changes. The paper concludes, therefore, that there is much about the course of China's reform and deepening integration into the world economy that can be understood as a function of its position as a latecomer in the international system.     

Television News as Political Ritual: Xinwen Lianbo and China’s journalism reform within the Party-state’s orbit

Besides being the most influential television news program with the largest viewership in China, Xinwen Lianbo (Television News Simulcast) also boasts of unique political value in the Chinese media landscape. Each and every change in form the program has adopted since its first broadcast in 1978, has been a reflection of a certain aspect or element of the arch of political reform in the country, and has been widely interpreted as such, thus making it ‘the toughest nut to crack’ in news reform. Throughout its 35 years of history, by striving to represent, maintain, adapt and disseminate the established ideological framework, thus ensuring political reform has progressed at a cautious and gradual pace acceptable to the ruling party, Xinwen Lianbo has proven to be a great example of the construction of political reality by journalistic text on the symbolic level. This article adopts the methodology of new social history with semi-participatory observation as it combs through the evolution of Xinwen Lianbo over 35 years, in an attempt to explore the patterns and paths of Chinese journalistic reform and the factors that have come to shape this journey in the broader context of political reform in China.     

Formal and Informal Politics in Macao Special Administrative Region Elections 2004–2005

Formal politics is defined as political participation under ‘rules and institutions’ while informal politics is a kind of ‘conventions and codes behavior’ in the political sphere, such as cronyism and guanxi networks. Both kinds of politics are interacting and functionally inseparable in a political system. This article explores the interactive dynamics between formal and informal politics in the Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR), with the August 2004 Chief Executive election and the September 2005 Legislative elections as illuminating case studies. It highlights the ways and means with which the Beijing and the MSAR authorities shaped the electoral institutions to undermine political opposition. It argues that formal politics possesses more than window-dressing functions to reveal the ‘normal and orthodox form of politics’ while the informal type is the real process for decision making. Formal and informal politics undermined the political input of the mass in Macao and triggered political irregularities involving money politics. It concludes that the dynamics of formal and informal politics did not possess enhancement but corruption in forging a genuinely democratic MSAR polity.     

Political sociology and contemporary China: State‐society images in American China studies

Images of ‘state and society’ have informed several generations of North American scholarship on China's communist polity. They express a concern for how power, authority, and influence are shaped by the interaction of party‐state efforts to control and mobilize the population with the responses, interests, and strategies of its citizens. While these images first came into focus in the 1960s, they reflect classical paradigms of political sociology and continue to focus research agendas into the 1990s. This article maps these images, highlighting some of their concerns and arguments.     

The Debate over ‘Universal Values’ in China

This article analyzes the background and significance of ‘universal values’, which have emerged and been debated in China over the last two years. Interest in this topic originates from the increased international mindset and the intensified call for political reform at the start of the twenty-first century. The cooperative approach of the leaders of the Communist Party of China regarding international affairs, as well as the spread of the Internet, has also provided conditions for the formation of ‘universal values’. Such an ideology has been criticized by conservatives. The debate has focused on whether democracy, liberty, human rights and humanities are universal values shared by all human beings. It marks a step forward in the awareness of democracy for the Chinese people.     

Changing Money Market and Monetary Policy Operations in China: an institutional perspective

This paper uses an institutional perspective to examine the changing monetary policy operations in China since the 1978 reform. It shows that the establishment of money markets has enabled the central bank to shift its policy approach of direct control over credits to a set of indirect monetary tools. Under the constraint of exchange rate stability and other institutional factors, the effectiveness of these indirect tools is limited. Establishing an interbank money market policy rate through SHIBOR will provide a means of signaling the cost of funds to banks and the public. Its success in China is conditional on improved corporate governance and the competitive structure of banks, increased flexibility in its exchange rate determination, and a more cost-conscious state sector.     

Villains,Victims and Aspiring Proprietors: framing ‘land-losing villagers’ in China's strategies of accumulation

This paper examines how debates in the media are providing the discursive conditions for, and thereby giving impetus to, diverse strategies of ‘so-called primitive accumulation’ in China. Taking as its empirical referent Chinese news and journal articles on land enclosure, the paper analyzes three frames in which policy entrepreneurs craft varying class positions for land-losing villagers. Grounded in different ontological premises, problem diagnoses and recommendations centering on the adoption of either a statist, neo-collective or liberal rural land regime, and backed up by evaluations of local policy experiments, the frames illustrate the diversity of ideational, political and institutional configurations that could facilitate the separation of peasant producers from the land, place land-losing villagers in different relationships with the state and capital, and sustain accumulation. In foregrounding these debates over land-losing villagers' future class positioning, the paper aims to offer a corrective to the historical determinism implicit in contemporary analyses that characterize enclosure in China as simply one national manifestation of homogenous, global neo-liberal projects of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ or ‘gangster capitalism’.     

30年来中国政治体制改革的经验启示

中国政治体制改革，是包含着各种政治要素在内的全方位的改革，是一项长期复杂的系统工程，势必对社会的进步与发展产生深远影响。文章通过对中国政治体制改革历程的理性思考，从理论根基、实践探索、战略部署以及条件保障几方面对改革的经验启示进行分析。