查看完整版本 : How China is Ruled ZT于BBC
A key gathering of China's ruling Communist Party has approved sweeping changes to the country's leadership.
A younger generation has taken the stage, bringing the possibility of change, and its uncertainty.
Communist Party
The Communist Party 66-million membership makes it the biggest political party in the world.
Its tight organisation and ruthlessness help explain why it is also still in power.
The Party oversees and influences many aspects of peoples lives - what they learn at school and watch on TV, their jobs and housing, even the number of children they are allowed.
It is an elite group made up largely of government officials, army officers and model workers.
As such, it is unrepresentative of China as a whole. Only 17% of members are women and 78% are over 35 years old, though efforts are under way to broaden its membership and attract more young people.
It is also obsessive about control, regularly showing itself capable of great brutality in suppressing dissent or any challenge.
Party perks
Joining the Party brings significant privileges, which explains why membership continues to rise. Members get access to better information, their children get better schooling, and many jobs are only open to members.
Most significantly in China, where personal relationships are often more important than ability, members get to network with decision-makers influencing their careers, lives or businesses.
To join, applicants need the backing of existing members and to undergo exhaustive checks and examination by their local Party branch. They then face a year probation, again involving assessments and training.
The Party basic principle of control is emocratic centralism? which makes each member subordinate to the Party organisation. It has a pyramid structure resting on millions of local-level Party organisations across the country and reaching all the way up to the highest decision-making bodies in Beijing.
In theory, the top of the pyramid is the National Party Congress, which is convened once every five years and brings together more than 2,000 delegates from Party organisations across the country.
It is this body which is due to meet from 8 November 2002 for the 16th Party Congress.
The Congress?main function is to lect?a Central Committee of 200 full members and 150 lower-ranking or "alternate" members, though in fact almost all of these people are approved in advance.
In turn, the Central Committee main job is to elect a new Politburo and its smaller Standing Committee, where real decision-making powers lie.
Other important Party bodies include the Secretariat, which is the Politburos administrative arm, and the Organisation Department, which oversees the careers of thousands of Party officials, keeping files on their performance and deciding on promotions.
Tips:
DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM
Party members subordinate to organisations
Minority is subordinate to the majority
Lower organisations subordinate to higher
All members and organs subordinate to the Party's Central Committee
Discipline commission
Party members suspected of corruption, bad management or breaking with the party line are liable to be hauled before discipline inspection commissions, set up to deal with internal party discipline and to monitor abuses.
As economic reforms have gathered pace, corruption has become probably the single most damaging issue for the party standing.
As a result, there have been consistent campaigns to root out corrupt officials and give maximum media coverage to a few, high-profile punishments.
For example, Cheng Kejie, a former Vice-Chairman of the National People Congress, was executed in 2000 for taking nearly $5m in bribes.
But this was seen as an exception.
Privilege
More often, powerful Party members are usually able to protect themselves, their families and prot from any enquiries or public criticism.
And because it is the Party which investigates the Party - it is not prepared to tolerate outsiders monitoring its members?behaviour - the commissions are always prone to interference from higher up.
On the occasions that the Party has acted against senior members, its motives have been questioned.
For example, the fall of former Beijing Party Secretary Chen Xitong ?sentenced to 16 years jail for corruption in 1998 ?was seen as having more to do with a power struggle at the top of government than with the Partys determination to clean up its ranks.
Nevertheless, the discipline inspection commissions do have privileged access to information about people. Their control over networks of informers and personal files makes them particularly feared.
Tips:
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Xiamen smuggling case evaded $3.6bn in tax
300 suspects put on trial
14 officials sentenced to death
Wife of a Politburo member involved
She has not been questioned or charged
Politburo
Every significant decision affecting China's 1.3bn people is first discussed and approved by a handful of men who sit on the Party's political bureau (Politburo), the nexus of all power in China.
The 24-member Politburo is elected by the Party's central committee. But real power lies with its nine-member Standing Committee, which works as a kind of inner cabinet and groups together the country's most influential leaders.
How the Standing Committee operates is secret and unclear.
But its meetings are thought to be regular and frequent, often characterised by blunt speaking and disagreement. Senior leaders speak first and then sum up, giving their views extra weight. The emphasis is always on reaching a consensus, but if no consensus is reached, the majority holds sway.
Once a decision has been made, all members are bound by it. Although policy disagreements and factional fighting are widely believed to take place in private, it is extremely rare for these to break into the public domain. When they do ?as happened in 1989 as the leadership battled over how to characterise the Tiananmen protests ?it is a sign of all-out power struggle.
New Politburo members are chosen only after rigorous discussion and investigation of their backgrounds, experience and views.
To reach the top, people need a strong record of achievement working for the Party, to have the right patrons, and to have dodged controversy and making powerful enemies.
Members of the Standing Committee also share out the posts of Party General Secretary, Premier, Chairman of the National People's Congress, and head of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission.
The full Politburo tends to include Party Secretaries from big municipalities like Beijing and Shanghai, and from important provinces like Guangdong.
Leaders from China's poorer provinces find it harder to make an impact at a national level and reach the Politburo. As a result, the Party's central leadership has been criticised for promoting the interests of richer regions.
Recently, the wealth generated by China's economic reforms has led some analysts to suggest the power of the centre is waning. It is pointed out that Party Secretaries of large provinces like Sichuan and Guangdong are in charge of populations bigger than most European countries, and that their tax revenues are vital to Beijing.
Provinces and municipalities have been given greater economic autonomy. But it is difficult to see them loosening Beijing's political grip so long as the country's political system remains so closed.
Power still flows from patrons to prot. There are no elections or votes to resolve policy differences, which tends to exacerbate factionalism. And for officials lower down the ladder, it is easier ?and less risky ?to pass tricky decisions upwards, back towards the centralising grip of the Politburo.
Tips:
NEW FACES
Politburo's informal retirement age of 70
Outgoing Politburo's average age 70
Likely replacements' average age 61
Since 1997, no military member of Standing Committee
Party elders
Senior leaders sometimes retain great influence over decisions and appointments long after they officially step down from power.
The most notorious example was Deng Xiaoping, who remained paramount leader even when his only remaining official post was chairman of the China Bridge Association.
More tellingly, it was Deng and other etired?leaders ?and not the Politburo Standing Committee ?who are thought to have made the fateful decisions to declare martial law and then send in the army to clear Tiananmen Square during the 1989 protests.
Dengs death in 1997, and the death or old age of other leaders from his generation, reduced the sway of party elders over the leadership of Jiang Zemin.
Hanging on
But the issue could become important again after Jiang generation steps down.
This is partly because of the patron-prot?nature of Chinese politics. Jiang and fellow Standing Committee member Li Peng have taken care to manoeuvre their own supporters into the Politburo and government bureaucracy.
This should ensure the two men and their different factions at least retain some influence over the new generation, even if that influence wanes as the new leaders gain more experience.
It is not simply about power for power sake. In China, retiring leaders know that the verdict on their achievements can easily be reversed. They also have to look out for their children, whose wealth and success becomes vulnerable to attack if their own influence fades.
As compensation, elders get a privileged and pampered retirement. They are guaranteed elite bodyguards, special housing, secretaries and drivers, as well as access to restricted documents and information.
Tips:
FAMILY TIES
Jiang Zemin's son known as "prince of information technology"
Li Peng's two children involved with big power companies
Zhu Rongji's son works for high profile bank
Military affairs commission
China's 2.5 million-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) has always defended the Party as much as national borders.
During the early years of Communist rule, most of the country's leaders owed their positions to their military success during the civil war, and links between them and the PLA remained very close.
But as this generation has died off and reforms have been introduced to make the armed forced more professional, the relationship has shifted subtly.
Party leaders know they are lost without the army's support, as became clear during crises like the 1989 Tiananmen protests. At the same time, senior military leaders realise they need the leadership's backing if far-reaching plans to modernise the armed forces are to be paid for.
The Party's control over the armed forces and their nuclear arsenal is institutionalised through the Central Military Affairs Commission.
The 11-man Commission has the final say on all decisions relating to the PLA, including senior appointments, troop deployments and arms spending.
Guarding the leaders
Nine of the members are senior generals, but the two most important posts are held by the Party's most senior leaders.
The Commission also controls the paramilitary People's Armed Police, who have the politically sensitive role of guarding key government buildings, including the main leadership compound of Zhongnanhai in Beijing.
In theory, the Commission's chairman is elected by the National People's Congress.
But in practice, the job automatically goes to the party's most powerful figure, who effectively becomes commander-in-chief.
The chairmanship was held by Mao Zedong and then Deng Xiaoping, who stayed in the job long after he had resigned from all other positions, suggesting to some analysts that this is the real source of power in China.
Jiang Zemin, who became Chairman in 1989, had none of the military background or cachet of his predecessors.
But by careful promotions of supporters and budget increases, Jiang ensured strong support from the military and within the Commission.
This helps explain how he retained the chairmanship after giving up his jobs as Party Secretary and state president.
Tips:
GUN MONEY
1992, PLA had 10,000 businesses with revenues of $5bn
1998, promised budget rise and told to get out of business
Defence budget up 15% each year since
PLA suspected to retain control of many businesses
State council
The State Council is the cabinet which oversees China vast government machine.
It sits at the top of a complex bureaucracy of commissions and ministries and is responsible for making sure Party policy gets implemented from the national to the local level.
In theory it answers to the National People Congress, but more often the State Council submits legislation and measures which the NPC then approves.
The State Council most important roles are to draft and manage the national economic plan and the state budget, giving it decision-making powers over almost every aspect of people lives.
It is also responsible for law and order.
The full Council meets once a month, but the more influential Standing Committee comes together more often, often twice a week.
This committee is made up of the country premier, four vice-premiers, state councillors and the secretary-general.
Tips:
UNDER 1998 REFORMS
State Council to no longer manage enterprises
Commissions and ministries cut from 44 to 29
Council employees halved to 16,000 since 1989
National People's Congress
Under China 1982 constitution, the most powerful organ of state is meant to be the National People Congress (NPC), China parliament.
In truth, it is little more than a rubber stamp for party decisions.
The Congress is made up of nearly 3,000 delegates elected by China provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and the armed forces. Delegates hold office for five years, and the full Congress is convened for one session each year.
This sporadic and unwieldy nature means that real influence lies within a Standing Committee of about 150 members elected from Congress delegates, who meet every couple of months.
In theory, the Congress has the powers to change the constitution and make laws.
Rubber stamp
But it is not, and is not meant to be, an independent body in the Western sense of a parliament. For a start, about 70% of its delegates - and almost all its senior figures - are also Party members. Their loyalty is to the party first, the NPC second.
What actually tends to happen, therefore, is that the Party drafts most new legislation and passes it to the NPC for consideration? better described as speedy approval. In truth, the NPC has shown signs of growing independence over the past decade. In a notable incident in 1999, it delayed passing a law bringing in an unpopular fuel tax. It has also been given greater leeway drafting laws in areas like human rights.
The Congress also lects?the country highest leaders, including the state president and vice-president, the chairman of the Military Affairs Commission and the president of the Supreme People Court.
But again, these elections are very different from the Western ideal. The 1998 presidential vote saw Jiang Zemin stand as the only candidate. He received 2,882 votes in favour, 36 against and 29 abstentions.
Tips:
NPC MUSCLE STRETCHING?
Finance committee grills some ministers
'No' votes on the increase
Chief prosecutor only got 65% 'yes' vote
Armed forces
Twenty years ago, soldiers in China People Liberation Army (PLA) spent as much time on political work?and reading Party speeches as military training.
Reforms introduced since the 1980s have made the armed forces much more professional.
They have shed one million men in a bid to concentrate on quality not quantity. Emphasis is being put on better training, better weapons and better pay.
Nevertheless, the military position as defender of the Party means it will never be de-linked from politics.
Officers and men still have to declare their loyalty to Party principles, study its teachings and read leaders?important pronouncements.
PLA officers are also Party members, and there is a separate Party machine inside the military to make sure rank and file stay in line with Party thinking.
Priorities
In keeping with its more professional role, the PLA has lost influence over non-military affairs. It was forced by Jiang Zemin to give up a vast business empire. It also appears to be losing clout at the top of the Party, where there is no PLA representative on the Politburo Standing Committee.
Some analysts think PLA generals are happy with this, so long as they retain influence over the areas which really matter to the military ?specifically the Taiwan issue and relations with America.
There have been suggestions that on at least one of these ?US relations ?military thinking is different to the Party leadership. Senior military figures are thought to be far more wary of US intentions in the region, especially regarding Taiwan.
These tensions became clear during the 2001 dispute over a US spy plane. The military appeared to try to draw out the row even though Party leaders wanted it resolved.
Tips:
MILITARY MIGHT
1.8 million-strong army
14,000 tanks
470,000-strong air force
2,500 fighter planes
250,000-strong navy
Provinces & townships
China is governed as 22 provinces, five utonomous,regions, four municipalities considered so important they are under central government control (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) and two Special Administrative Regions.
The people in charge of these bodies ?a group of about 7,000 senior Party and government leaders - are all appointed by the Party Organisation department.
Although many are powerful individuals ?the governor of Sichuan province rules over 85 million people ?their ability to deviate from the Party line is limited because they know their next career move would be at stake.
Nevertheless, most analysts agree the centre has lost some control over the regions in the past two decades, especially in the economic field. There has even been speculation of some provinces wanting to break away from central control, though this is seen as highly unlikely.
Power and decisions flow down from this top level to an intermediate level of counties and cities, and finally to the local-level townships.
At each level the Party and government structures sit side by side, with the Partys representative always the more powerful. Thus a province Party general-secretary takes precedence over its governor.
Each level has its own local People Congress which elects its own government for periods of three or five years. These local governments have been given limited leeway to adopt local regulations in keeping with their situation.
Tips:
TIAO AND KUAI
Under a system known as tiao and kuai, different levels of the bureaucracy only have to abide by directives issued by higher-ranking bodies.
A ministry cannot rule over a province because they are the same rank.
Provinces do have to comply with orders from the State Premier, who out-ranks them.
Courts & prosecutors
China laws reflect a complicated mix of Party priorities, a Soviet-inspired system set up after 1949, and a raft of new legislation passed since 1979 to haul the country modernising economy into line with those of major foreign investors like the US and Europe.
But the Party still comes first. Laws are seen as a way to manage the economy and people lives, rarely to protect them from the state or enshrine individual rights.
Law-making is also complicated. The National People Congress is responsible for drafting laws covering areas like human rights and taxation. But in other areas, the State Council and local governments can legislate too.
Even once laws have been passed there is no guarantee they will always be respected. Often provincial governments and state-owned enterprises view court decisions as something to be negotiated, not obeyed.
And for the Party and state, the rule of law?is not allowed to undermine its own interests, as pro-Tibetan independence activists and followers of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement know to their cost.
Legal pyramid
Both main legal organs answer to the National People Congress.
The Supreme People Procuratorate is the highest legal supervisory body, charged with safeguarding the constitution, laws and people rights.
The Supreme People Court sits at the top of a pyramid of People Courts going down to the local level.
Public security organs are in charge of the investigation, detention and preparatory examination of criminal cases.
The People's Procuratorates are responsible for approving arrests and initiating and providing assistance to public prosecutions.
Cases are heard and judged in the People's Courts.
Tips:
WESTERN CRITICISMS
Courts not independent
Torture used to get confessions
Arbitrary detention without charge
300,000 people in "re-education centres"
More than 2,400 executed in 2001
vBulletin® v3.8.5，版权所有 ©2000-2012，Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.