Factional model-making in China: Party elites’ open political contention in the policy process

Cheung, Olivia

Abstract

This article introduces the analytical framework of “factional model-making” to describe and explain the open political contention of Chinese Communist Party elites in the policy process. Party elites undertake factional model-making to express policy disagreements and to signal their power to the regime: by flouting the Party line publicly without punishment, they show that they can influence the Party line and therefore pressurize the regime into acknowledging their position in the opaque power structure. This article chronicles the history of factional model-making from the 1960s to 2012 and examines in detail the making of Henan's Nanjie Village into a re-collectivization model by the Party's left. The process began in the 1990s and ended soon after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, which prompted Nanjie's patrons to recast the village as a Party model trumpeting Xi's line. The suppression of factional model-making under Xi is discussed in the conclusion.

Citation

Cheung, O. (2022). Factional model-making in China: Party elites’ open political contention in the policy process. The China Quarterly, 705-725. https://doi.org/10.1017/S030574102200008X

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 4, 2022
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 10, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 10, 2021
• Journal: The China Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0305-7410
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-2648
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 251
• Pages: 705-725
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S030574102200008X
• Keywords: faction; Mao; military; princelings; left; red billionaire villages
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/factional-modelmaking-in-china-party-elites-open-political-contention-in-the-policy-process/42A26A71B7709FBDCC28AFADF4041BA8