Democracy in China
Encyclopedia
Democracy was a major concept introduced to China
in the late nineteenth century. The debate over its form and definition as well as application was one of the major ideological battlegrounds in Chinese politics for well over a century. It is still a contentious subject. Andrew Nathan wrote in his 1985 study that "the Chinese have aspired to democracy as they understand it for a hundred years, have claimed to have it for seventy, and for the last thirty-five years have lived in one of the most participatory societies in history."
. In 1895, he participated in protests in Beijing for increased popular participation during the late Qing Dynasty
, the last ruling dynasty of China. It was the first of its kind in modern Chinese history. After escaping to Japan following the government's clampdown on anti-Qing protesters, Liang Qichao translated and commented on the works of Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke
, Hume
, Bentham
and many other western political philosophers. He published his essays in a series of journals that easily found an audience among Chinese intelligentsia hungering for an explanation of why China, once a formidable empire of its own, was now on the verge of being dismembered by foreign powers. In interpreting Western democracy through the prism of his strongly Confucian background, Liang shaped the ideas of democracy that would be used throughout the next century. Liang favored gradual reform to turn China into a democratic constitutional monarchy
.
Liang's great rival among progressive intellectuals was Dr. Sun Yat-sen
, a republican revolutionary. Sun felt that the democracy would be impossible as long as the Qing monarchy still existed. Democracy was part of his platform, the Three Principles of the People
. Like Liang, Sun agreed that democracy, or at least universal suffrage
, could not happen overnight in a country with high illiteracy rates and lack of political consciousness. Sun's Three Stages of Revolution called for a period of "political tutelage" where people would be educated before elections can occur.
Responding to civil failures and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court responded by organizing elections. China's first modern elections were organized by Yuan Shikai
for Tianjin
's county council in 1907. In 1909, 21 of 22 provinces, with the exception being Xinjiang
, held elections for provincial assemblies and municipal councils. Requirements were strict; only those that passed the imperial exams, worked in government or military, or owned 5000 yuan of property may vote or run for office. This essentially limited the electorate to the gentry
class. Hundreds of thousands voted and the winners were overwhelmingly constitutional monarchists, followers of Liang Qichao. The provincial assemblies elected half of the 200 member national assembly, the other half was selected by Regent Zaifeng. All of these assemblies became hotbeds of dissent against the Qing as they were protected by freedom of speech.
began, it was the provincial assemblies that provided legitimacy to the rebels by declaring their independence from the Qing Empire. The national assembly also issued an ultimatum to the Qing court. Delegates from the provincial assemblies were sent to Nanjing
to publicly legitimize the authority of the provisional government of the Republic of China
founded on 1 January 1912. They later also formed the provisional senate. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty and some economic initiatives.
In late 1912, national elections
were held with an enlarged electorate, albeit still small proportionally to the national population. Sun's Nationalist Party
dominated both houses of the National Assembly
. Song Jiaoren
, the incoming Nationalist prime minister, was assassinated in March 1913 before the assembly's first session. A police investigation implicated sitting prime minister Zhao Bingjun
while popular belief was that provisional president Yuan Shikai was behind it. This led to the failed Second Revolution against Yuan. Victorious, Yuan forced the National Assembly to elect him president for a five year term then purged it of Nationalists. Without a quorum
, the assembly was dissolved.
After Yuan's death in 1916, the National Assembly reconvened until it was dissolved again the following year by Zhang Xun
's coup attempt to restore the Qing. Prime Minister Duan Qirui
refused to reconvene the National Assembly, opting instead to hold elections for a new assembly more favorable to him. As a result, a rump of the old assembly moved to Guangzhou
to start a rival government in southern China. In northern China
, 17 provinces elected a new assembly
dominated by Duan's Anfu Club in 1918. This new assembly was dissolved following Duan's defeat in the Zhili-Anhui War
of 1920.
President Xu Shichang organized elections for a third assembly in 1921 but with only 11 provinces voting it never had a quorum and thus never convened. That was the last attempt to hold national elections until 1947. All assemblies were dissolved after the Nationalists' Northern Expedition.
The formation of the Nationalist single-party state
in 1927 implemented the late Sun's "political tutelage" program which forbade elections until the people were considered properly educated. All other parties were kept out of government until 1937, when the impending Second Sino-Japanese War
led to the United Front and the formation of the People's Political Council which included the smaller parties. In 1940, partly in response to tensions in the United Front, Mao Zedong
offered the new Communist Party
doctrine, New Democracy
. New Democracy was an intermediary stage unlike western parliamentary, electoral democracy but not yet communism. After the war, the Nationalist's "political tutelage" ended with the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China
. The 1947 National Assembly
and 1948 legislative elections
were boycotted by the Communists which held most of northern China. As a result, the Nationalists and their junior coalition partners, the Chinese Youth Party
and China Democratic Socialist Party
, won.
in 1949, only those three parties of the ruling coalition and, in the 1980s, independents (Tangwai
) were allowed to run for office. The province was under martial law
until 1987. The 1979 Kaohsiung Incident
was a major blow to hopes for democratic reform, but Chiang Ching-kuo
pushed for reform of the Nationalist Party and opening it to Taiwanese. Since the early 1990s, there has been strong electoral competition between the Nationalist Party and the Democratic Progressive Party
. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian
(陳水扁)of the DPP was elected, leading to the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition in Chinese history.
" . Consequently, they saw no need for elected governments so they established the people's democratic dictatorship
. Starting in the 1980s, they allow village elections to take place. All higher levels of government are indirectly elected with candidates vetted by the government. As a result, the highest levels of government contain either Communist Party members, their United Front allies, and sympathetic independents. Opposition parties are outlawed.
In 1989, the Chinese Democracy Movement
, student demonstrators expressed demands for democracy.
as Special Administrative Regions do have some essences of liberal democracy.
As European colonies, both were denied democratic governments until very late in the colonial period. Hong Kong got its first elections in the 1980s and Macau in the 1990s. Both Hong Kong and Macau have legislatures; 30 of Hong Kong's 60 legislators are directly elected, as are 12 of Macao's 29. Also, like grassroots elections in China, Hong Kong does hold elections for the district counsel, which act as consultants to the government.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in the late nineteenth century. The debate over its form and definition as well as application was one of the major ideological battlegrounds in Chinese politics for well over a century. It is still a contentious subject. Andrew Nathan wrote in his 1985 study that "the Chinese have aspired to democracy as they understand it for a hundred years, have claimed to have it for seventy, and for the last thirty-five years have lived in one of the most participatory societies in history."
Qing dynasty
The first introduction of the concept of modern democracy into China is credited to exiled Chinese writer Liang QichaoLiang Qichao
Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...
. In 1895, he participated in protests in Beijing for increased popular participation during the late Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, the last ruling dynasty of China. It was the first of its kind in modern Chinese history. After escaping to Japan following the government's clampdown on anti-Qing protesters, Liang Qichao translated and commented on the works of Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
and many other western political philosophers. He published his essays in a series of journals that easily found an audience among Chinese intelligentsia hungering for an explanation of why China, once a formidable empire of its own, was now on the verge of being dismembered by foreign powers. In interpreting Western democracy through the prism of his strongly Confucian background, Liang shaped the ideas of democracy that would be used throughout the next century. Liang favored gradual reform to turn China into a democratic constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
.
Liang's great rival among progressive intellectuals was Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
, a republican revolutionary. Sun felt that the democracy would be impossible as long as the Qing monarchy still existed. Democracy was part of his platform, the Three Principles of the People
Three Principles of the People
The Three Principles of the People, also translated as Three People's Principles, or collectively San-min Doctrine, is a political philosophy developed by Sun Yat-sen as part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation...
. Like Liang, Sun agreed that democracy, or at least universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
, could not happen overnight in a country with high illiteracy rates and lack of political consciousness. Sun's Three Stages of Revolution called for a period of "political tutelage" where people would be educated before elections can occur.
Responding to civil failures and discontent, the Qing Imperial Court responded by organizing elections. China's first modern elections were organized by Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China , and his short-lived...
for Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
's county council in 1907. In 1909, 21 of 22 provinces, with the exception being Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, held elections for provincial assemblies and municipal councils. Requirements were strict; only those that passed the imperial exams, worked in government or military, or owned 5000 yuan of property may vote or run for office. This essentially limited the electorate to the gentry
Gentry (China)
As used for imperial China, landed gentry does not correspond to any term in Chinese. One standard work remarks that under the Ming dynasty, called shenshi or shenjin, meaning variously degree-holders, literati, scholar-bureaucrats or officials, they are loosely known in English as the Chinese...
class. Hundreds of thousands voted and the winners were overwhelmingly constitutional monarchists, followers of Liang Qichao. The provincial assemblies elected half of the 200 member national assembly, the other half was selected by Regent Zaifeng. All of these assemblies became hotbeds of dissent against the Qing as they were protected by freedom of speech.
Republic of China
When the 1911 RevolutionXinhai Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, also known as Revolution of 1911 or the Chinese Revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing , and established the Republic of China...
began, it was the provincial assemblies that provided legitimacy to the rebels by declaring their independence from the Qing Empire. The national assembly also issued an ultimatum to the Qing court. Delegates from the provincial assemblies were sent to Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
to publicly legitimize the authority of the provisional government of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
founded on 1 January 1912. They later also formed the provisional senate. The limited acts passed by this government included the formal abdication of the Qing dynasty and some economic initiatives.
In late 1912, national elections
Republic of China National Assembly elections, 1912
The Republic of China National Assembly elections, 1912, held in December 1912 to January 1913, were the first elections for the new founded Republic of China Senate and House of Representatives....
were held with an enlarged electorate, albeit still small proportionally to the national population. Sun's Nationalist Party
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
dominated both houses of the National Assembly
National Assembly of the Republic of China
The National Assembly of the Republic of China refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the Republic of China. The National Assembly was originally founded in 1913 as the first legislature in Chinese history, but was disbanded less than a year later as President Yuan Shikai assumed...
. Song Jiaoren
Song Jiaoren
Song Jiaoren was a Chinese republican revolutionary, political leader and a founder of the Kuomintang . He was assassinated in 1913 after leading his Kuomintang party to victory in China's first democratic elections...
, the incoming Nationalist prime minister, was assassinated in March 1913 before the assembly's first session. A police investigation implicated sitting prime minister Zhao Bingjun
Zhao Bingjun
Zhao Bingjun was the third premier of the Republic of China from 25 September 1912 to 1 May 1913. Zhao was previously a public security official during the Qing dynasty and became minister of the interior during the republic before becoming premier. He was directly implicated in the...
while popular belief was that provisional president Yuan Shikai was behind it. This led to the failed Second Revolution against Yuan. Victorious, Yuan forced the National Assembly to elect him president for a five year term then purged it of Nationalists. Without a quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
, the assembly was dissolved.
After Yuan's death in 1916, the National Assembly reconvened until it was dissolved again the following year by Zhang Xun
Zhang Xun (Republic of China)
Zhang Xun was a Qing-loyalist general who attempted to restore the abdicated emperor Puyi in 1917. He supported Yuan Shikai during his time as president....
's coup attempt to restore the Qing. Prime Minister Duan Qirui
Duan Qirui
Duan Qirui was a Chinese warlord and politician, commander in the Beiyang Army, and the Provisional Chief Executive of Republic of China from November 24, 1924 to April 20, 1926. He was arguably the most powerful man in China from 1916 to 1920.- Early life :Born in Hefei as Duan Qirui , his...
refused to reconvene the National Assembly, opting instead to hold elections for a new assembly more favorable to him. As a result, a rump of the old assembly moved to Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
to start a rival government in southern China. In northern China
Beiyang Government
The Beiyang government or warlord government collectively refers to a series of military regimes that ruled from Beijing from 1912 to 1928 at Zhongnanhai. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Government of the Republic of China. The name comes from the Beiyang Army which dominated...
, 17 provinces elected a new assembly
Republic of China National Assembly elections, 1918
The Republic of China National Assembly elections, 1918, held in May to June, were the elections for the second National Assembly of the Republic of China. The bicameral assembly consisted of a senate and a house of representatives...
dominated by Duan's Anfu Club in 1918. This new assembly was dissolved following Duan's defeat in the Zhili-Anhui War
Zhili-Anhui War
The Zhili–Anhui War was a 1920 conflict in the Republic of China's Warlord Era between the Zhili clique and Anhui cliques for control of the Beiyang government.-Prelude:...
of 1920.
President Xu Shichang organized elections for a third assembly in 1921 but with only 11 provinces voting it never had a quorum and thus never convened. That was the last attempt to hold national elections until 1947. All assemblies were dissolved after the Nationalists' Northern Expedition.
The formation of the Nationalist single-party state
Single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
in 1927 implemented the late Sun's "political tutelage" program which forbade elections until the people were considered properly educated. All other parties were kept out of government until 1937, when the impending Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
led to the United Front and the formation of the People's Political Council which included the smaller parties. In 1940, partly in response to tensions in the United Front, Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
offered the new Communist Party
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
doctrine, New Democracy
New Democracy
New Democracy or the New Democratic Revolution is a Maoist concept based on Mao Zedong's "Bloc of Four Social Classes" theory during post-revolutionary China which argues that democracy in China will take a decisively distinct path from either the liberal capitalist and/or parliamentary democratic...
. New Democracy was an intermediary stage unlike western parliamentary, electoral democracy but not yet communism. After the war, the Nationalist's "political tutelage" ended with the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China
Constitution of the Republic of China
The Constitution of the Republic of China is the fundamental law of the Republic of China . Drafted by the Kuomintang as part of its third stage of national development , it established a centralized Republic with five branches of government...
. The 1947 National Assembly
Republic of China National Assembly election, 1947
National Assembly elections were held in the Republic of China between 21 and 23 November 1947. A total of 2,961 delegates were elected from across the country.-Results:Note that the results are for Taiwan only....
and 1948 legislative elections
Republic of China legislative election, 1948
First Legislative Representative Election of the Republic of China, and the recent 1947 National Assembly Election are the Republic of China's first public direct elections since its founding. At the time most of China's territory was under the control of the Government of the Republic of China,...
were boycotted by the Communists which held most of northern China. As a result, the Nationalists and their junior coalition partners, the Chinese Youth Party
Chinese Youth Party
The Young China Party , also known as the Chinese Youth Party, is a minor political party in the Republic of China...
and China Democratic Socialist Party
China Democratic Socialist Party
The China Democratic Socialist Party was founded in Shanghai on 15 August 1946. It was formed through the merger of the former Chinese National Socialist Party and the Democratic Constitutionalist Party , both of which had survived the years of Japanese aggression by generally supporting the...
, won.
Republic of China on Taiwan
When the ROC government retreated to TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
in 1949, only those three parties of the ruling coalition and, in the 1980s, independents (Tangwai
Tangwai
The Tangwai movement was a political movement in the Republic of China in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Although the Kuomintang had allowed contested elections for a small number of seats in Legislative Yuan, opposition parties were still forbidden...
) were allowed to run for office. The province was under martial law
Taiwan Garrison Command
The Taiwan Garrison Command was a secret police/state security body which existed under the Republic of China military on Taiwan. The agency was established at the end of World War II, and operated throughout the Cold War. It was disbanded on August 1, 1992....
until 1987. The 1979 Kaohsiung Incident
Kaohsiung Incident
The Kaohsiung Incident also known as the Formosa Incident, the Meilidao Incident or the Formosa Magazine incident was the result of pro-democracy demonstrations that occurred in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on December 10, 1979....
was a major blow to hopes for democratic reform, but Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo
Chiang Ching-kuo , Kuomintang politician and leader, was the son of President Chiang Kai-shek and held numerous posts in the government of the Republic of China...
pushed for reform of the Nationalist Party and opening it to Taiwanese. Since the early 1990s, there has been strong electoral competition between the Nationalist Party and the Democratic Progressive Party
Democratic Progressive Party
The Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...
. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian
Chen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
(陳水扁)of the DPP was elected, leading to the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition in Chinese history.
People's Republic of China
The Communists which created the People's Republic of China, equate democracy with "dictatorship of the proletariatDictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
" . Consequently, they saw no need for elected governments so they established the people's democratic dictatorship
People's democratic dictatorship
"People's democratic dictatorship" is a phrase incorporated into the Constitution of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong.The premise of the "People's democratic dictatorship" is that the Communist Party of China and state represent and act on behalf of the people, but possess and may use...
. Starting in the 1980s, they allow village elections to take place. All higher levels of government are indirectly elected with candidates vetted by the government. As a result, the highest levels of government contain either Communist Party members, their United Front allies, and sympathetic independents. Opposition parties are outlawed.
In 1989, the Chinese Democracy Movement
Chinese democracy movement
The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...
, student demonstrators expressed demands for democracy.
Special Administrative Regions
Although mainland China is currently far away from a full-fledged civil democracy, Hong Kong and MacauMacau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
as Special Administrative Regions do have some essences of liberal democracy.
As European colonies, both were denied democratic governments until very late in the colonial period. Hong Kong got its first elections in the 1980s and Macau in the 1990s. Both Hong Kong and Macau have legislatures; 30 of Hong Kong's 60 legislators are directly elected, as are 12 of Macao's 29. Also, like grassroots elections in China, Hong Kong does hold elections for the district counsel, which act as consultants to the government.
Further reading
- Daniel Bell, East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000).
- Daniel Bell, Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006).
- Edmund S. K. Fung, In Search of Chinese Democracy: Civil Opposition in Nationalist China, 1929-1949 (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Cambridge Modern China Series). xviii, 407p. ISBN 0521771242