Reports from the Field: Provincial People's Congresses

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 155, 1998, Pages 656-667

  MacFarquhar, Roderick ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0347504997     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0305741000050037     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. I am most grateful to the Smith Richardson and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundations for providing support for my research in the U.S., China and Taiwan, and to Beijing University for its generous hospitality during a two-month stay on its beautiful campus.
2. For an early study, see Kevin J. O'Brien, Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); for recent studies, see for instance Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in Post-Mao China: Institutions, Processes, and Democratic Prospects (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming); Minxin Pei, "Is China democratizing?" Foreign Affairs (1998), pp. 68-62.
3. For an early study, see Kevin J. O'Brien, Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); for recent studies, see for instance Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in Post-Mao China: Institutions, Processes, and Democratic Prospects (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming); Minxin Pei, "Is China democratizing?" Foreign Affairs (1998), pp. 68-62.
4. For an early study, see Kevin J. O'Brien, Reform without Liberalization: China's National People's Congress and the Politics of Institutional Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990); for recent studies, see for instance Murray Scot Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking in Post-Mao China: Institutions, Processes, and Democratic Prospects (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming); Minxin Pei, "Is China democratizing?" Foreign Affairs (1998), pp. 68-62.
5. Yu Renbo, Kua shiji de sikao (End of Century Thoughts) (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1993), p. 41. Yu Renbo is also the executive vice-editor of the very useful Wang Shenglin (ed.), Difang lifa gailun (an Introduction to Local Law-making) (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1993).
6. Yu Renbo, Kua shiji de sikao (End of Century Thoughts) (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1993), p. 41. Yu Renbo is also the executive vice-editor of the very useful Wang Shenglin (ed.), Difang lifa gailun (an Introduction to Local Law-making) (Jinan: Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1993).
7. Qi Guiyuan (ed.), Zhongguo renmin daibiao dahui zhidu tonglum (A Comprehensive Guide to China's People's Congress System) (Harbin: Heilongjiang jiaoyu chubanshe, 1994), pp. 156-57.
8. Interviews with Yu Renbo and Professor Ju Maoqin, Jinan, 25 November 1997.
9. The NPC is the only body empowered to pass laws (falü). The State Council and PPCs pass regulations (fagui).
10. Yu Renbo interview.
11. Ju Maoqin interview.
12. Yu Renbo interview.
13. The details about the Heilongjiang PPC are contained in Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee, Legal System Work Office, Heilongjiang sheng qing jianjie (A Summary of Conditions in Heilongjiang Province), (Harbin, 1998), pp. 21-24.
14. There is provision for over 80 PPC SC members in the much more populous province of Shandong; interview with Bo Zhenming, SC member, Shandong PPC, Jinan, 24 November 1997.
15. In the case of the last election for the Shandong PPC SC, there were 35 candidates for 31 seats; interview with Shandong PPC member Shi Zhongjian, Jinan, 26 November 1997.
16. Unusually for a PPC, the current chair of Heilongjiang is a former provincial party first secretary, Sun Weiben. His appointment was decided at Central Committee level.
17. Bo Zhenming interview.
18. Interview with Meng Qingxiang, SC vice-chairman, Heilongjiang PPC, Harbin, 28 November 1997.
19. With this preponderance of Party members, the Party group does not need to meet in advance of the chairman's committee. Meng Qingxiang interview.
20. Wang Shenglin, An Introduction to Local Law-making, p. 49.
21. Interview with Wang Yunqi, vice-director of the Legal Work Office, Heilongjiang PPC SC, Harbin, 28 November 1997.
22. Bo Zhenming interview, Yu Renbo interview.
23. The high-tech meeting room of the Heilongjiang SC, in a handsome new PPC building constructed in the early 1990s, is less imposing than that of the Shandong PPC SC, but its fine audio-visual facilities mean that Heilongjiang has a full video record of all sessions of the SC of the 8th PPC, clearly a fine database for further research. Since the PPC meets only once a year, no special chamber was provided for it in the building, and the annual plenary sessions take place in cinemas or other public places.
24. Bo Zhenming interview.
25. Yu Renbo interview.
26. Interview with Cui Mingshi, representative, Heilongjiang PPC, and vice-director of its finance and economics committee, Harbin, 28 November 1997.
27. Interview with Yao Qianxun, staff member, Shandong PPC legislation committee, Jinan, 25 November 1997.
28. Cui Mingshi interview.
29. Yu Renbo interview; Cui Mingshi interview; Wang Shenglin (ed.), An Introduction to Local Law-making, pp. 48-49.
30. For the national level, compare with Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking. The aphorism is attributed to a Harvard professor, the late Don K. Price; see Graham T. Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971), pp. 176, 316.
31. For the national level, compare with Tanner, The Politics of Lawmaking. The aphorism is attributed to a Harvard professor, the late Don K. Price; see Graham T. Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971), pp. 176, 316.
32. The imprisonment of a vice-mayor of Harbin on corruption charges was cited to me as evidence that the province had this problem well in hand. Since leaving China, I have seen evidence that vice-mayor Zhu Shengwen was wrongfully arrested, tortured, tried and imprisoned for life as a result of the machinations of another vice-mayor who was indeed corrupt and feared exposure.
33. The committee consulted its Shandong counterpart while preparing for this struggle. Cui Mingshi interview.
34. The national and local laws are reproduced in Heilongjiang sheng gongye wuran fangzhi tiaoli: tiaowen yaoshi (Heilongjiang Province's Regulations on the Prevention of Industrial Pollution: An Explanation of the Provisions) (Harbin: Heilongjiang sheng huangjing baohu ju, 1996).
35. Interview with Gao Guangzhou, Harbin, 28 November 1997.
36. Bo Zhenming interview.
37. Much of this section is based on an interview with Shi Zhongjian, a Beida doctoral candidate and a member of the Shandong PPC, to whom I am most grateful for the arrangements he made for my visit to his province.
38. A Korean reading a Shandong newspaper informed him of his success, but Shi telephoned his wife to make sure.
39. In addition to the certificate, membership of the PPC is confirmed by a list of names in the press and the issue of a member's card.
40. Shi, for instance, was a senior union official, though he resigned this position and became a "reserve" cadre after he moved to Beijing to work on his PhD.
41. The massive bureaucratic apparatus that underpins the U.S. Congress is justifiable since it is a separate institution and the source of much legislation. It is noteworthy that in the UK parliament where the "executive branch" (i.e. prime minister and cabinet) is in charge of legislation and leads from within the legislature backed by a normally loyal party, individual MPs and backbench committees are thought not to need significant bureaucratic back-up.
42. This suggestion was made by Shang Ying, a graduate student at Beida, to whom I am much indebted for considerable assistance on this project.
43. The classic study of this institution is Charles O. Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966).
44. There has been a striking increase in the degree to which Chinese citizens believe that lodging a complaint with the NPC is worthwhile; see Minxin Pei, "Is China democratizing?" p. 75.