Balance of Factional Power in China: The Seventeenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

The Seventeenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), held on 15–21 October 2007 in Beijing, produced some interesting changes to the balance of power among different factional groups in Chinese politics. Compared to the balance of power among factional groups generated as a result of the Sixteenth National Congress of the CCP five years earlier, the four major factional groups had different experiences. In terms of power index, the Shanghai Gang, a factional group affiliated with Former General Secretary Jiang Zemin, declined substantially; the Qinghua Clique, graduates of the Qinghua University, also declined significantly; the Princelings, children of former high-ranking officials, however, increased a great deal; and the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) Group, a factional group closely associated with General Secretary Hu Jintao, witnessed substantial expansion. In terms of group cohesion index, both the Shanghai Gang and the Qinghua Clique shrank significantly; the Princelings increased somewhat; and the CCYL Group expanded substantially.

Zhiyue BoEmail:

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Zhiyue Bo   is a Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. He obtained his Bachelor of Law and Master of Law from Beijing University and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is the author of Chinese Provincial Leaders: Economic Performance and Political Mobility since 1949 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2002) and China’s Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing (Singapore: World Scientific, 2007). He would like to acknowledge the East Asian Institute, NUS, for its financial support for this project, participants in the panel on “The Future of the CCP” at the 66th Annual National Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago in April 2008 (especially Shanruo Ning Zhang) for their helpful comments, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions.