Book talk: Factional-Ideological Conflicts in Chinese Politics: To the Left or to the Right?
Despite the importance of Chinese elite politics to understanding how the Chinese Communist Party works, it has long been one of the least well-understood subjects in the study of China.
In theory, the Chinese Communist Party is organised on the basis of ‘democratic centralism’, the Leninist principle that subjugates ‘democracy’, or the freedom of party members, to ‘centralism’, or the demand for unity and discipline. However, the reality was that from the late Mao Zedong period until Xi Jinping disciplined the Party aggressively, party elites repeatedly flouted democratic centralism by expressing, in public, visions of socialism and political reform at odds with the party line. At various points in time, party elites used Dazhai, Anhui, Nanjie, Shekou, Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Chongqing as their local bases to mobilize support for their revisionist viewpoints and to push for policy changes accordingly. Their practice, which Dr Olivia Cheung calls ‘factional model-making’, certainly violates party discipline. However, it was tacitly tolerated by the party leadership.
Discussing her new book, Factional-ideological Conflicts in Chinese Politics: To the Left or to the Right?, Dr Olivia Cheung argues that factional model-making plays a unique and important role in reinforcing collective leadership at the upper party echelons. It also ensures the deliberation of opposite viewpoints in the policy process. Furthermore, it provides candid and credible political information otherwise short in supply. Xi’s mutation of factional model-making to party model-making, as seen in Zhejiang, has reinvigorated democratic centralism, possibly at the cost of longer-term regime resilience.
The e-book version of the book is freely downloadable from Amsterdam University Press and the hardcover version of the book can also be ordered via the Amsterdam University Press website.
Date:
2 November 2023, 17:00 (Thursday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2023)
Venue:
Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details:
Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor)
Speaker:
Dr Olivia Cheung (SOAS)
Organising department:
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organisers:
Dr Evelyn Chan (University of Oxford),
Dr Xiaojing Miao (University of Oxford),
Professor Margaret Hillenbrand (University of Oxford),
Professor Denise van der Kamp (University of Oxford),
Professor Henrietta Harrison (University of Oxford),
Dr Chigusa Yamaura (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
information@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Dr Evelyn Chan (University of Oxford)
Part of:
China Studies Seminar series
Booking required?:
Not required
Cost:
Free
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Clare Orchard
