Understanding China’s Governance Model

Few nations have risen to the league of major powers faster than the People’s Republic of China. Considerable literature has now emerged worldwide to understand China’s governance model and how has it enabled such a rapid economic growth and social development.

Since 1949, when Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic, China’s governance has passed through three distinct phases. Till 1978, it was time for ‘consolidation’ of the Communist revolution. Under Mao, despite some hard times, China made notable progress towards universal education for its citizens, induction of women in the work force, and mobilization of its people towards organized work.

This laid down a solid foundation for the second phase of Chinese governance, lasting from 1978 to 2011. Led by Deng Xiaoping, China opened its doors to the outside world, adopting many of the principles of market economies, while keeping political governance unchanged. During this phase, ‘development’ remained the top priority for the country. China started registering consistently high economic growth rates, and became a manufacturing hub of the world.

In 2012, China’s governance entered into its third phase. President Xi took over, and embarked his country on the phase of ‘dignity’ to assert Chinese presence on the world stage. A massive programme of economic rebalancing was unleashed. This led to private companies becoming more profitable; under-developed regions of China started receiving greater attention, and 800 million Chinese made their way out of poverty.

Five features of Chinese governance have contributed the most to China’s success story. First is the clear vision and national purpose. The country has been pursuing two centenary goals: Create a moderately prosperous society by 2021, which has been achieved; and Build China as a modern socialist country by 2049. To achieve this vision, internally the leadership calls for national rejuvenation, which is hailed as the “Chinese Dream”. Externally, President Xi wants to “build a global community of shared future” through projects like Belt and Road Initiative. There is a challenge to this vision from US’s Indo-Pacific strategy, but Chinese seem reluctant to enter into any kinetic confrontation at this stage, possibly because they want to continue their peaceful rise to achieve their national purpose.

Second, the Chinese seem to attach high importance to political stability. Notably, through the course of all three phases of governance mentioned above, the fundamental political governance system has not changed. China is governed by a system of people’s congresses, with National People’s Congress (NPC) as the highest decision-making body. The NPC brings together nearly 3,000 deputies, making it the largest parliament in the world. The NPC elects a politburo, which provides strategic direction to the country.