State Power and Chinese Authoritarian Resilience in the Reform Era: Coercion, Obstruction and Domination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61462/cujss.v51i2.680Keywords:
China studies, , Chinese authoritarian resilience, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese domestic politics, state powerAbstract
This article attempts to unravel the puzzle of Chinese authoritarian resilience. After the ‘reform and opening up’ policy had been implemented in the late 1970s, China started to enjoy decades of phenomenal economic growth and to produce an increasing amount of urban middle-class. In consequence, many observers expected to witness subsequent political liberalisation. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can still hold on to power until present. What makes the regime resilient? This work addresses the question through the power dimension, arguing that the CCP’s longevity hinges upon its power dominance over potential threats. The Party’s power can be seen to have three faces. The first face is coercion: The Party carries out decision-making on the issues over which there is an observable conflict among interests. The second face is obstruction: The Party takes control over the agenda of politics by keeping the potential issues out of the political decision-making process. The third face is domination: The Party’s power exists when the Chinese people believe the values which oppress them and resign themselves to those values. Because China is becoming more powerful and influential in many ways, this work on Chinese politics is of both academic significance and policy relevance.
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