China's Political Development: Chinese and American Perspectives

1. The People's Republic of China's Sixty Years of Political Development

1 Introduction Toward Good Governance in China: Perspectives of Chinese and American Scholars yu฀keping China’s continued development over the past three decades since its reform and opening up and its rapid rise on the international stage have generated heated discussion and debate in Chinese and international academic circles, especially regarding political change.1 Many questions have been raised: How should China’s political evolution be viewed? Has China’s great economic progress been accompanied by major political progress? What is the political rationale for China’s economic success? What changes has China’s economic development brought to its governance, and what further changes can be expected? Is there such a thing as Chinese-style democracy? What are the similarities and differences between the political paths of China and Western countries? These questions have also spurred reflection on some of the general assumptions of political science and have led to even more questions: Is democracy a universally shared human value? Does economic modernization necessarily lead to political democratization? What is the relationship between democracy and social modernization? What are the main sources of political legitimacy in today’s world? What are the criteria for democracy and good governance? Can the Western democracy and governance model apply to China? An in-depth discussion of these questions has direct bearing not only on our understanding of basic political values such as democracy, liberty, equality, human rights, and good governance but also on whether consensus on major realworld political issues can be reached between the Chinese government and public 00-2535-0 intro.indd 1 3/28/14 10:18 AM 2 Yu Keping intellectuals or between the People’s Republic of China and the international community. The significance of these questions goes far beyond the academic sphere and involves China’s political reform and its relationship with the world. On these issues, Chinese and American scholars can have mutually informative and enlightening discussions and debates. This introductory chapter presents a brief survey of the important works here. In this volume, twelve prominent Chinese political science scholars and twelve prominent American scholars in political science and sociology—most of whom are experts on China—offer their insights concerning China’s political development since the reform and opening-up period that began in 1978, more than thirty years ago. These chapters include analyses and comments on the Chinese Communist Party, the National People’s Congress, the political consultation system, government administration, and civil society. They often reflect the authors’ views on the basic elements of democracy—such as elections, the rule of law,2 separation of powers, accountability, decisionmaking, civic engagement, transparency, civil rights, public service, coordination of interests, supervision of power, and societal autonomy. Taken together, these chapters provide an overview of the achievements China has scored on the path to good governance, the paths it chose not to pursue, the challenges it faces, and the direction in which it is heading. From Revolution to Reform To understand China’s political evolution since the reform and opening-up period and its future political development, it is necessary first to study the political culture and the political system that was put in place after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949 and to survey the course of the country’s political development since that time. Only in this way can one truly understand the changes the Deng Xiaoping–led reforms made since 1978 to the political mechanisms established by Mao Zedong, how China’s political system has evolved over the past three decades, the areas in which China has made political progress since then, and the internal motivations and main themes of these changes. These questions are the subject of my chapter 1. My basic conclusion is that Chinese society has undergone a comprehensive change since the CCP took power, especially since the reform and opening-up period began in 1978. Overall , the process of reform and opening up has brought not only economic growth but also political and social progress. Economic reform in the absence of political reform is inconceivable. To a certain degree, China’s great success in economic modernization is the logical outcome of its political evolution. 00-2535-0 intro.indd 2 3/28/14 10:18 AM Perspectives on Good Governance in China 3 In 1949 the CCP overthrew Kuomintang rule and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This marked the...