China Brief and Analysis
Overview
The Xia dynasty was the first to be recognized in China and lasted for a period ranging between 2200 to 1750 B.C, which marked the shift from the late Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. This dynasty lasted through the period of cultural growth as well as dynastic succession, which led to the attainment of increasingly urbanized development of the Shang Dynasty(Olson, & Prestowitz, 2011). Over the numerous millennia, China managed to absorb people within the surrounding areas to its citizens through the adoption of the most useful innovations and institutions of those people that they conquered. These are the achievements that attracted people within China’s peripheries. The refinement of the Chinese citizens’ talent, artistic and intellectual creativity, as well as their sheer weight in numbers, has made China civilization to be predominant in East Asia.
In China, before the initiation of economic enhancement reforms as well as trade liberation in almost 40 years ago, the country upheld strategies that enabled it to keep its economy at an impoverished state, controlled, stagnant, relatively isolated and widely inefficient globally. However, the opening of the international trade implementation and investment reforms, China has been a level ground with nations that have been experiencing accelerated growth of their economies with actual annual gross domestic product GDP growth averaging approximately 9.5%. This is one of the fastest sustained expansion by a critical economy in history. This kind of growth has made it possible for China to double its GDP on average and raise a considerable number of people out of poverty. It’s important to note that the unceasing struggle during the agrarian Chinese over the threat posed to the security and way of life by non-Chinese peoples within their territory contributed a lot to its growth (Olson, & Prestowitz, 2011). After the imperial rule came to an end, a prolonged period of social, economic growth followed together with social, political discord. The republic of China came into being after the communist party take over the control of the mainland and created a scene for the development of a different society that was based on a Marxist-Leninist model complete with a class scuffle and popular politics that were all the time fashioned and under the directions of the CCP. Despite the threats, Chin managed to move on and seized control over Tibet and adopted a political refinement movement against “enemies of the state” and promoted “class struggle” within the sponsorship of agrarian improvement as a portion of the “transition to socialism.”
China Political System
It is important to note that the People‘s Republic of China follows an authoritarian political system under the control of the communist party. Official controls have been undergoing severe tightening since 2007, particularly towards the media civil society, an approach that has backtracked to the legal developments that were started in the ’90s and early 2000s. Since the leadership of Mao Zedong, the communist party leaders have tried to remold China through the imposition of the communist ideology, an economy run by the state, and citizens under the absolute control of the party (Wang, 2007). These are some of the policies that have led to notable challenges such as the mass famine, and serious political turmoil.
There has been increased expansion in the kind and level of freedom that the ordinary citizens enjoy concerning the individual core decisions relating to aspects such as where to live or even work. A cadre of activists’ journalists, as well as bloggers, has been developed by commercialized media and novel technologies. These journalists and bloggers push past the set boundaries of censorship and, in most cases, end up exposing corruption and illegal behavior among the ruling party officials. However, despite this move, the leaders of the central government remain staunchly opposed to some of these significant political reforms. That is, they dislike the enhancement of freedom of speech as well as representative democracy. In other words, they are seen to repress peaceful protest with a high; level of brutal force where even moderate calls for political reforms are met with long prison terms(Wang, 2007). For instance, Liu Xiaobo, in 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, served a long prison term until he died in 2017. The party and the country leadership, in general, has faced increased opposition with call s for significant political changes and aspect that might interfere with their control and the authorities of the central government. However, due to these kinds of oppositions, the authorities have come up with a arrange of reforms aimed at fighting corruption as well as abuse of power from the local government.
In the last several years, central party authorities have made similar, increasingly concerted efforts to curtail the legal and judicial reforms of the prior decade. Like it was in the past, the Chinese authorities have been tightening their stand on dissent in advance of the high profile events or the wake of cross-border developments. There have been widespread detentions of activists done by party officials for a prolonged period of time. One of the most sustained crackdowns took place after the Arab spring in 2011, where the authorities introduced extrajudicial detention activists with public interest calls and lawyers. An increase in the harassment of journalists was also observed, and the issue of tampering with the virtual private network (VPN) services started particularly those that are accessed by a large number of citizens as a way of evading widespread government internet controls.
It is worth noting that stringent Chinese policies about the media, civil society as well as legal institution does not result in due to transitory government concerns to precise onetime events. However, these efforts are a representation of an increasingly general effort that extends back numerous years, intending to curtail some of the limited reforms undertaken in recent decades. As far as China’s political system is concerned, the central china leadership has chosen to give priority towards party control at the expense of creating an autonomous legal and political institution (Morrison, 2013). This approach carries actual risk as far as social wellbeing is concerned. On the other hand, increased economic growth is generating an increase in citizens’ demands to take part in the decisions that impact the lives and for establishments to increased appropriate response to their complaints. In lack of gradual and functional approach towards the political changes, this pressure is in its place being directed towards into mass citizen appeals and protests, anti-elitist official pomposity, and chauvinistic internet opportunities that are unruly and defective to the point of releasing valves that flare up occasionally, however, but all of these fail to deal with the critical roots of creating a social discontent.
Political Culture and Socialization
The ruling regime under the CCP has full control over the government institutions in China. The party officials act as the leadership core over the government and organization within the same level. The party policies are followed up by the Party committees and cadres inside the government organizations. At the same time, the central leadership is always seen to be against
multiparty democracy where they term it as a westernized concept that is not appropriate for China‘s circumstances. Leaders who have been seen as calling for this nature of political reform have ended up being suppressed harshly, including the Chinese democracy party that ended up being banned in 1998 and led to the establishment of the 2008 charter. The party authorities select key figures in the executive as well as in the judiciary through a competitive civil service exam. Authorities in the communist party have control over the election mechanism, which governs the legislative institutions in China, and this limits the eligibility of standing in an elective position within the Chinese local people’s congress. Candidates in these positions have experienced abuse, harassment, and even detention from the local authorities. On the other hand, the communist party institutions are under the governorship of a no transparent internal procedure, and this is unlike during the Mao Zedong period, where there was no single figure that dominated the political landscape. It is important to note that as far as democracy is concerned, the decision and appointments are a consequence of backdoor politics that involves diverse functions.
There is a minimal level of public participation within the Chinese political system. At the center of the party leadership, there has been permission of an expanded range of reforms aimed at enhancing the control and governance of the party to ensure that there is a better way of monitoring their local agents, and offer a response to the domestic discontent. Since the year 2005, Chines authorities have been trying to raise their efforts towards the promotion of part managed institutions like the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Additionally, CCP, through its officials, has undertaken controlled experiments by bringing in a degree of standard participation in the selection of local party corps. Moreover, tight control has been retained by the party authorities towards the selection procedure, candidate pools, and the widespread backing is not expected to be a determinant within the ultimate selection decisions. Those members who are not part of the party is one-third of the township delegates who tries to undertake their legislative role through the representation of the interest of their constituents by ensuring that the executive agency’s actions are well supervised.
China’s Democracy
Power is centrally placed with the ruling communist party officials it’s evident that China remains to be undemocratic or a nation that graduating towards democracy at a slowed pace. Therefore, it’s important to raise questions about whether this nation will democratize or note. Considering theoretical and practical thinking, researchers in comparative democratization are of the view that democratizing China will cause diverse different realities for its citizens and the world community. There is clear evidence that since the 1980’s the authorities in China have been adopting a certain level of electro reforms that have permitted a limited degree of citizen contribution towards the selection of local officials. As a progressive move, the government in the 1990s went ahead in the adoption of crucial measures toward professionalizing the judiciary as a way of giving the citizens an elevated level of legal redress for the grievances that they raised against the communist party officials. Some officials have even called out for sturdy reforms for example in 2010 Wen Jiabao was against the excessive centralization of political power, over the view that lack of clear safeguarding of political change, the goals of economic reform attained up to that time could not modernize or materialize (Keping, 2016). However, these have also been blocked by other authorities where the Propaganda officials had Wen Jiabao remarks censored while playing in the state-run media outlets and mimicked the official statement that it was necessary to try and avoid taking the stand of the Western‖ political reforms. In general, as the country attempts to come up with policies that all people’s views are respected and listened to, positive reform towards democracy will continue to face obstacles and undercutting anytime that they appear to be on the edge of creating substantial change.
Challenges faced by China
One enduring lesson that China can capitalize on is that it continues to develop as an economic giant because once people acquire increased economic liberty, increased autonomy, and sturdy property rights that stand a better chance of establishing a pleasant-sounding and prosperous society (Víg, & Gajinov, 2017). However, China is faced with clear challenges as it marches to the future. There is no existing clear and the genuine rule of law which has adequate limits to the power held by the government; there is no independent judiciary to assist in enforcing the rights promised in the within the constitution. Based on this paper analysis, it’s evident that there is no free market for ideas that are essential to enhance innovation and avoid fundamental policy errors. This non-competitive political system promotes an assortment of views like developed democracies in the world.
Conclusion
In general, China’s leadership is centrally set with the communist party. Those who try to voice their voices as activists have faced a tough time from the regime. This indicates that democracy in China has not yet been attained, and there is a need for continued struggle. In other words, China needs to change towards a growth model with an increased emphasis on quantity over quality. There is a high centralized approach to economic decision making, but they need to consider how they will react as a nation in case they end up being faced with the problem of choosing between economic reforms and strengthening the party considering the fact that these kind of systems are under the dominance of politics other than economic considerations.
References
Víg, Z., & Gajinov, T. (2017). Challenges facing China. Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies, 58(4), 476-485.
Olson, S., & Prestowitz, C. (2011). The evolving role of China in international institutions. Washinton DC.
Wang, Z. (2007). Public support for democracy in China. Journal of Contemporary China, 16(53), 561-579.
Keping, Y. (2016). Democracy in China: Challenge or Opportunity. World Scientific.
Morrison, W. M. (2013). China’s economic rise: history, trends, challenges, and implications for the United States (pp. 20-22). Washington, DC: Congressional research service.