Leadership, Legitimacy and Conflict in China: From a Charismatic Mao to the Politics of Succession

173 Pages·1984·18.32 MB·English

by  Frederick C. Teiwes (auth.)

-Leadership,
Legitimacy,
an<fConflict
in China
I
n the three essays in this volume, Professor
Teiwes investigates leadership politics at the
apex of the Chinese system. He raises a series of
questions about conflict in the most authoritative
body, the Politburo, and more broadly among the
senior leaders of China's various organizations. What
are the sources of power and authority at the top?
What has been the nature of the relationship be
tween the leader-most importantly Mao but also in
recent years Deng Xiaoping-and his Politburo col
leagues? What tensions have emerged among those
ranking elite members serving under the leader?
How do the fortunes of such figures interact with the
various institutional interests of contemporary China
and the massive bureaucracy as a whole?
Inquiries such as these are necessarily speculative,
but given the difficulties of perceiving and analyzing
the interactions of leaders in a closed system such as
China's, Teiwes' assessments are both knowledge
able and provocative.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A graduate of Amherst College, Frederick C. Teiwes received his
Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. From 1969 to
1976 he first taught at Cornell University and then held a research
appointment at The Australian National University. Since 1976 he has
been on the faculty of the University of Sydney where he is a Reader in
Government.
Mr. Teiwes has written widely on various aspects of Chinese affairs,
particularly provincial politics and elite analysis in addition to Party
disciplinary methods. His works include Provincial Party Personnel in
Mainland China (1967), Ssu-Ch 'ing: The Socialist Education Move
ment (with Richard Baum, 1968), Provincial Leadership in China
(1974), Elite Discipline in China (1978), and Politics and Purges in
China: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms 1950-1965
(1979).
FREDERICK C. TEIWES
eadership,
egitimacy,
and
Conflict
mCbina
FROM A CHARISMATIC TO
~1AO
THE POLITICS OF SUCCESSION
M
MACMILLAN
Copyright © 1984 by M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 978-0-333-37442-9
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, without
written permission from the publisher.
First published in the United Kingdom 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Teiwes, Frederick C.
Leadership, legitimacy, and conflict in China.
1. China-Politics and government-1949-
1. Title
320.951 JQ1516
ISBN 978-0-333-37443-6 ISBN 978-1-349-17423-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17423-2
To
KATH
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments IX
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 3
I. CHINESE POLITICS 1949-1965:
A CHANGING MAO 10
Mao's Thought-An Evolving Dialectic 11
Mao's Position in the CCP 23
Patterns of Conflict 31
Conclusion 42
II. THE LEGITIMACY OF THE LEADER 43
The Bases of Legitimacy 46
The Shifting Nature of
Mao's Authority, 1949-1976 62
The Post-Mao Search for Legitimacy 76
III. NORMATIVE AND PRUDENTIAL RULES
UNDER AND AFTER MAO 93
Normative Rules and Prudential Politics 94
Elite Politics under Stable Maoism, 1949-1965 99
The Rise and Fall of Lin Biao, 1966-1971 105
"Two Line Struggle," 1972173-1976 113
From Hua to Hu in the Age of Deng, 1976/77-1982 118
Conclusions and Prospects 127
Notes 133
Index 163
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume of essays owes a great deal to conferences on Leninist
political systems held at The Australian National University in 1979
and 1981. These conferences, organized by T. H. Rigby and Robert F.
Miller, led me to think systematically about many of the issues raised in
the second and third pieces below, and Rigby's papers in particular laid
some essential groundwork for my own analyses. At a later stage
Michael Yahuda performed an invaluable service through detailed
comments on the latter essays which sharpened my sense of the distinct
Chinese dimension as opposed to the Leninist structural features of
leadership politics in China. Graeme Gill provided not only valued
criticism but also considerable guidance on comparative insights into
Soviet politics.
I also thank a number of others who commented at various stages on
one or more of the three essays: David Bachman, Gordon Bennett,
Bernard Carey, Ross Curnow, Lowell Dittmer, Thomas Fingar, Tom
Fisher, Michael Jackson, Pamela Tan, Wang Gungwu, and Gordon
White. Sandra Gibbons provided helpful research assistance, while
Sandra Donnelly, Wilma Sharp, and Sylvia Krietsch worked diligently
on the various stages of the manuscript, and Margaret McAllister
prepared the Index with brisk efficiency. Finally, I am deeply apprecia
tive of the financial support of the Department of Government at the
University of Sydney.
Frederick C. Teiwes
Sydney
ix
ABBREVIATIONS
Organizations
CAC Central Advisory Commission
CCP Chinese Communist Party
CMC Central Military Commission
JCP Japanese Communist Party
MAC Military Affairs Committee
NPC National People's Congress
PLA People's Liberation Army
PRC People's Republic of China
Publications and
Publishing Agencies
BR Beijing Review
CB Current Background
CLG Chinese Law and Government
CNA China News Analysis
CQ The China Quarterly
FB/S:PRC Foreign Broadcast Information
Service: People's Republic
of China
IS Issues & Studies
JPRS Joint Publications Research Service
MMT Miscellany of Mao Tse-tung Thought
MP Mao Papers: Anthology and
Bibliography
NIT The New York Times
PDA Communist China I955-I959:
Policy Documents with
Analysis
PR Peking Review
RMRB Renmin Ribao [People's Daily]
SCMM Selections from China Mainland
Magazines
SCMP Survey of China Mainland Press
sw
Selected Works of Mao Zedong
USIS United States Information Service
xi
l-,eadership,
Legitimacy,
ancfConflict
inC hina