Lecture 1: Introduction: Studying Contemporary China
Article 1: ‘Born in Translation: “China” in the Making of “Zhongguo”. Dirlik, Arif REREAD
- Very political, putting China in quotation because of the naming.
- Minorities that don’t feel ‘’Chinese’’, while the CCP tries to unify the Chinese people under 1
identity.
Article 2: ‘Seven Chinas – A Policy Framework’. Center for Strategic & International Studies Kelly,
David.
- Article describes different faces of China (article points out only 7 of the possibly more faces
of China) and how these narratives are relevant to contemp.
- With a foreign policy perspective in mind, primarily for American policy makers to tell them
how to deal with China.
- What kind of arguments circulate around
policy makers in China.
- Doesn’t describe how regular people
describe themselves.
- Describes discourses that aren’t
necessarily based on evidence but
‘’sounds right’’
Q: What can a video like this tell us
about China? Video about silk road tourism
A: Both tradition and modernity is shown. More emphasis on tradition, modernity is most on eastern
region, although that is changing. It also emphasizes the beauty of the countryside. Has a connection
about the Belt&Road initiative, because of the silk road reference. Background agenda about
propagating the initiative.
A popular narrative is that China is an imperialist force, with colonial ambitions (negative). Antagonist
towards liberal democracy (caricature of Chinese shoe trampling other countries flags).
What enthusiasts see economic boom, south-east Asa especially positive. China-is-China-is-China
narrative. China never changed comparatively to the dynasty-China, PRC is just the next big empire
with their emperor but just a different name. China is inscrutable, we cannot learn what really
happens in China because it’s China.
We don’t know a lot about China; real GDP growth, true size of Chinese population, anything about
high-level politics, what people really think, the real defence budget, how good Chinese schools
really are, the real crime figures, amount of people in Xinjang internment camps etc…
Most people agree China is: Big, dynamic, diverse and modern.
,Q: What is Modernity?
A: Progress, moving forwards. History is developing and moving forward, with some kind of destiny.
Technology is a big part of that. Urbanization which leads to fragmented modernization. Emphasis of
urban areas fragmented social and cultural repercussions. Less religious, more secular.
(Sustainability, social services post-modern)
Elements that are important:
- Subject to industrialisation
o Many cases capitalist, but can also be socialist.
o Development of capita and stock and making that the foundation of the economy is
crucial.
o Was it industrialisation or political organisation or technology?
- National political participation and Incorporation into geopolitical world order
- Nation-state
o Various ways of organising people into participating into this nation state by
legitimizing themselves and that its based on the will of the people.
o First it was sent by the heaven or God, now its by the people.
o Labour rights and protests are very modern rights.
- Urban & disrupted communal life
o Move toward urbanity is crucial how modernity works
Q: What is Area studies?
A: Area studies is an approach to knowledge that starts from the study of places in the human world. It
refers to the collection and interpretation of information from societies normally separate from the
observer in time and/or space. It is a dynamic synthesis of area expertise and disciplines in the humanities
and social science, relying on sensitivity to and critical reflection on the situatedness of scholarship and
foregrounding the area studies as not just sources of data, but also sources of theory and method that
challenge disciplinary claims to universality.
The 3 P’s of Political science
1. Politics
Negotiated, elaborated, debated, performed, legitimized
Communication, political gestures
2. Policy
Codified as written text, communicated to citizens, shaped by different actors
3. Polity
Institutions that are informed by and built on values, norms, beliefs
(European parliament, House of Commons, German Bundestag).
Power: The chance to assert one’s will in a social relationship despite resistance, regardless of the
basis on which this chance rests. Power doesn’t have to be used. Things that can be used as power:
money, inspiration, knowledge, ideology, communication information etc.
Legitimacy: the chance to attain acceptance for certain specific commands from a given group of
persons. By appealing rationally, how does the CCP does this?
Agency: The ability to act autonomously and make free choices.
Structure: the set of social patterns that determine behaviour and limit free choice. Money?
Ideological? Education?
,Where does structure end and agency begin?
Agents are motivated by/Ideas that may motivate actors:
1. Actors are motivated by self-interest (rationalist answer)
a. They care mainly about power (realist answer)
b. They care mainly about welfare (liberal answer)
2. Actors are fuelled by beliefs and ideas (constructivist answer)
a. They care mainly about norms and values
Q: What is an institution?
A: These are organisations of people that function according to certain rules and which are meant to
fulfil specific purposes. (Government, NGO, Companies, international organisations etc. ) Can be
defined more broadly any system that rules or regulates human behaviour. Starting with
particular values or norms.
Q: Should definitions of such terms be universal or not?
A:
Lecture 2: China's Political System: The Chinese
Communist Party and the PRC State
Article 1: Pieke, Frank N. ‘The Communist Party and Social Management in China’
Article 2: Shin, Kyoung (2017), ‘Neither Centre nor Local: Community-Driven Experimentalist
Governance in China’.
We talked about institutions (that can also be norms and values).
The State
Q: What is a state and what are components that make a state a state?
A: A state is a condition of political order under which a group of persons are bound to a territory and
are controlled by sovereign rule.
here are 3 elements that are important in a state:
- Population
- Territory
- Sovereign Rule
The government
Q: What is a government?
A: A government encompasses all state agencies that are involved with governing. Most commonly,
government refers to the executive of a state.
Governing
Q: What is governing?
, A: Governing is the purposive regulation of social processes. State doesn’t necessarily have to take
the role of governing. Economic, military and social processes can have a governing role.
Governance
Q: What is governance?
A: Governance is the attempt to govern by reaching beyond the level of the state and including
private institutions and actors in the process. Sometimes, governance also means governing in a
more efficient and cost-effective way. Reagan was convinced that state should be more governed like
businesses because it would allegedly be less wasteful.
What are the purposes of governing?
- Collecting resources (taxes)
- Security (domestic and foreign) Army, police
- Welfare (distribution of goods) catching net social states
- Identity (creating a collective sense of belonging)
o That they associate with the state they’re under, passports, speaking/educated in a
certain language
- Legitimacy (justifying the political system and political decisions)
o Maintaining continuity; making sure the state keeps existing.
Difference between government and governance?
In nutshell, governance is what a government does. It is the exercise of powers that are bestowed
upon the government according to set rules and regulations using a system of bureaucracy that
defines governance. Government is merely an instrument for the purpose of governance
Q: What is a regime?
A: Bringing together some actors together, a set of rules/norms that shape a particular set of
interactions. Like the anti-nuclear arrangement, or climate change arrangement. Doesn’t necessarily
have to be states.
A: In case of the Chinese Regime mostly used by journalists to talk about authoritarian
governments in a derogatory way.
Q: What might be some of the problems when referring to the PRC as an
authoritarian regime?
A: It says that an entire political system is either democratic or authoritarian; if a government doesn’t
tick off the boxes of what a democracy entails, then its authoritarian. The reason its tricky is because
you’re going to find elements that are extremely authoritarian and other elements that are not (like
the Dutch system can be super authoritarian (try not paying your taxes)).
Scholars use the word ‘’Regime’’ to describe the PRC for decades, with the notion that a ‘’regime’’ is
bad and wouldn’t work, but it has worked for decades for the Chinese. It assumes that only a
democratic system would work. Just because a system is questionable doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.
What’s wrong with the term ‘’Party-State’’?
It assumes that a state with one party is monolithic organisation, it’s one thing and it acts on it’s own.
This is not true, its more diverse.
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