Introduction
Modernizing State Governance
Reform and opening up started in 1978. It represented a turning point in China’s history, and has delivered a series of remarkable achievements. It has not only changed the face of China, but also of the wider world.
China’s economic development has been a miracle, unprecedented in world history. From 1978 to 2012, the average annual growth rate of GDP exceeded 9%. Total GDP grew from RMB326.4 billion in 1978 to RMB74.4 trillion in 2016, when per capita GDP reached RMB53,980. This made China the second largest economy in the world.(1) From 2013 to 2017, China’s GDP grew at an annual rate of 7.1%, from RMB54 trillion to RMB82.7 trillion, contributing more than 30% of world economic growth over the period. Its share of the world economy increased from 11.4% to approximately 15%.(2) Alongside the rapid economic growth, urban and rural Chinese are experiencing a significant improvement in their living standards. This has ensured that all Chinese families have sufficient food and clothes on their backs – a problem that has plagued China for several millennia. It has turned China into a moderately prosperous society in all respects. From an international perspective, China is already well on the way to joining the ranks of the moderately developed countries.
China is rising rapidly and in the global spotlight. It is a focus of international attention and a subject of heated international debate. One of the important issues attracting both attention and debate is: What are the reasons for China’s modernization miracle? How has China maintained fundamental social stability and order while achieving successful economic restructuring and modernization?
To many of the international community, this question represents“the enigma of China’s development” or “the enigma of China’s success”. To many Western academics, especially experts on Chinese issues, the standard answer is that China has introduced market-oriented economic reform but maintained its political system. For example, the eminent American expert on Chinese issues, Susan Shirk, has said that the reason for China’s success lies in the key fact that it has reformed the economic system without substantive reform of the political system formed during the Mao Zedong era, and thus an alliance has been formed among the political elite during the process of reform. This is the political logic of China’s economic reform. In contrast, the former Soviet Union failed in its modernization because its political reform predated its economic reform, which broke the existing status quo.(3)
However, in Chinese official mainstream opinion, the fundamental reason for the success of reform and opening up is that China embarked on a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. As Xi Jinping pointed out in the report to the CPC’s 19th National Congress in 2017,“Our Party united the people and led them in launching the great new revolution of reform and opening-up, in removing all ideological and institutional barriers to our country and nation’s development, and in embarking on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Thus was China able to stride ahead to catch up with the times.”(4) “Socialism with Chinese characteristics has been the focus of all of the Party’s theories and practice since reform and opening-up began. It is the fundamental achievement of our Party and our people made through countless hardships at enormous cost. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the only path to socialist modernization and a better life for the people. The theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the right theory to guide the Party and people to realize national rejuvenation. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics provides the fundamental institutional guarantee for progress and development in contemporary China. The culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a powerful source of strength that inspires all members of the Party and the people of all ethnic groups in China.”(5)
Socialism with Chinese characteristics is different from both the traditional Soviet Union model and the Western capitalist model. It includes socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, the socialist market economy, and the social and cultural systems with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, China’s reform and opening up is an integrated process of social changes incorporating economy, politics, and culture.
From the perspective of China’s history and traditions, politics has played a key role in economic development. Economic progress is impossible without political progress. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 symbolizing reform and opening up was itself a form of political reform. Chinese leaders and the CPC’s important political documents have always placed great emphasis on both economic reform and political reform. For example, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly said that success in economic reform would not be possible without political reform. “If we fail to do that [reform of the political structure], we shall be unable to preserve the gains we have made in economic reform … .”(6) “Without political reform, economic reform cannot succeed, because the first obstacle to be overcome is people’s resistance. It is human beings who will – or will not – carry out reform. For instance, we encourage devolution of power, but other people take power back. What can we do about it? So in the final analysis, the success of all our other reform depends on the success of political reform.”(7)
Therefore, economic reform and political reform have been the two indispensable segments in every report to the CPC’s National Congress. The Leading Group for Further Reform under the CPC Central Committee, established after the Third Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013, oversees the work of both the economic reform special leading group and the political reform special leading group. Recently it was emphasized again in the report to the CPC’s 19th National Congress in 2017 that, “We must uphold long term and steadily strengthen China’s socialist democracy, make active and prudent efforts to advance the reform of the political system, and improve the institutions, standards, and procedures of socialist democracy. We should ensure that people participate, in accordance with law and in various ways and forms, in the management of state, economic, cultural, and social affairs, and consolidate and enhance political stability, unity, and vitality.”(8)
Why have such different, even diametrically opposed conclusions been drawn by the Chinese and the international community on political reform since China’s reform and opening up in 1978? The key reason is that different standards of assessing political reform have been used.
Western academics adopt three main standards when judging and assessing political reform: Whether there is one-party politics or multiparty competition; whether the head of state is elected directly by the electorate; and whether legislative, executive, and judicial powers are independent from each other.
Judging China’s political system by these three political standards, we are certain to conclude that little has changed. Each successive Chinese head of state from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping has repeatedly vowed not to copy Western political models, meaning that China refuses to follow the path of Western political development, to engage in multiparty competition, to pursue separation of powers, and to adopt general suffrage. Instead, China adheres to the socialist development path with Chinese characteristics. Its key is to uphold one-party rule by the CPC.
So what is political reform as understood by mainstream opinion in China? It is not political reform as defined by many Western academics. It is reform of state governance, with a focus on the administrative system. This reform does not involve changes to the fundamental political framework, but a reform that places great emphasis on state governance. Although the state governance system is more instrumental when compared to the fundamental political system, there can be no doubt that state governance belongs to the realm of politics.
Therefore, judged from the relationships between the central government and local governments, between the country and society, and between government and market, and judged from such perspectives as law-based governance, public services, citizens’ participation, democratic decision-making, social governance, government accountability, political transparency, and community-level self-governance, Chinese political activities have undergone tremendous changes since reform and opening up in 1978, with considerable progress being made especially in the modernization of state governance.
Having understood the inner logic of this difference, we are able to offer a new suggestion to explain the enigma of China’s development. Why has China been able to achieve rapid economic growth and social transformation while maintaining social order? One answer given by political science is that this is a combination of a “variable” and a “constant”: carrying out far-reaching reform of state governance while maintaining the basic political framework.
What is in the domain of the constant institutional framework and what is in the domain of changing state governance? Having figured out the answers to these two questions, we will be able to understand how China is governed, which is the primary reason why this book has been written.
This book is divided into two parts. Part I is “Basic Systems”, including China’s political party system, people’s congress system, political consultation system, legislative system, administrative system, judicial system, self-governance system, and national defense system. Part II is “Governance Strategies”, including elections, rule of law, political participation, democratic decision-making, government accountability, public services, political transparency, and power supervision. If Part I focuses more on the fundamental political framework, then Part II places more emphasis on political procedures. The two parts are integrated, forming a modern Chinese state governance system that has continued to improve since reform and opening up.
(1) National Bureau of Statistics: China Statistical Yearbook (2016), Chin. ed., China Statistics Press, Beijing, 2016.
(2) Li Keqiang: “Report on the Work of the Government (2018)”, accessed July 26, 2018, http://www.gov.cn/zhuanti/2018lh/2018zfgzbg/zfgzbg.htm
(3) Avery Goldstein: “The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China By Susan Shirk”, American Political Science Review, Vol. 88, Issue No. 3, 1994, pp. 790-791.
(4) Xi Jinping: Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era – Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Eng. ed., Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2018, p. 18.
(5) Xi Jinping: Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era – Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Eng. ed., Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2018, p. 20.
(6) Deng Xiaoping: “On Reform of the Political Structure”, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. III, Eng. ed., Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1994, p. 178.
(7) Deng Xiaoping: “Help the People Understand the Importance of the Rule of Law”, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol. III, Eng. ed., Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1994, p. 167.
(8) Xi Jinping: Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era – Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Eng. ed., Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2018, p. 43.