Factionalism in Chinese Communist politics

This study examines how factionalism has affected political outcomes in China. The analyses focus on leadership relations and leadership decision making in Chinese politics. My examination shows that factionalism is embedded in the political system of China. The CCP dictatorship forces Chinese leaders to seek support through personal ties in the political process; the lack of institutionalization personalizes the authority; the personal entrustment of power promotes factional linkages; and military involvements consolidate individual leaders' personal power. All these have provided necessary and sufficient conditions for the development of factionalism in Chinese politics.; Relationships among the first-generation CCP leaders were faction ridden because of the emphasis on personal loyalties in the distribution of power during the revolution. Yet, the effort to institutionalize the policy process after 1949 constantly undermined Mao's command, for it demanded to reshape leadership relations in accord with each leader's position in the policy process, rather than his personal relationship with Mao. The incompatibility between Mao's command, which was based on personal loyalties, and the institutionalization, in which leadership relations were defined by the interests emerged in the policy process, formed the essential source of endless elite conflicts and policy inconsistency. Mao's struggle to maintain his command eventually led to the Cultural Revolution, of which the most devastating impact was the loss coherence of the Party. As a result, factionalism embedded in CCP politics was fully unleashed.; Deng Xiaoping achieved the dominance in Chinese politics because his access to the factional networks in both the Party and military systems enabled him to form a coalition with other factional leaders in the struggle for power. Constant compromises between Deng and his allies have not only caused policy inconsistency, but also made Deng's dominance vulnerable. Moreover, as more players joining in the game, it is increasingly difficult to manipulate the process. The May 1989 crisis was an unintended, yet inevitable, outcome.; However, the inability of any single faction to dominate the policy process on the one hand and the extremely uneven socio-economic development across China on the other hand has resulted in an unprecedented tendency in Chinese politics: the leaders seek support from the outside of the CCP organization, and political factions tend to represent specific social groups or areas in policy making. I argue in conclusion that factionalism in the long run can play a positive role in China's political development--a kind of development we have observed in Japan and Taiwan--in which political pluralism can be initiated not so much by multi-party competitions as through interactions of multi-factions within a dominant party.