What kind of government does China actually have?
It’s not an idle question. The country is governed by the Chinese Communist Party, but the constitution of the People’s Republic of China doesn’t actually mention The Party. And while the 1982 State Constitution–along with the laws passed by the National People’s Congress–is technically the highest authority in the land, many of the rights guaranteed in both Constitution and laws are subject to interpretation and policy, and are routinely ignored.
In practice, The Party rules China because it controls the entire apparatus of power in China. There is no national legislative body; that role is played by the National People’s Congress. There is no supreme court that acts as a check on executive power or reviews the constitutionality of laws.
Changes in laws and policies are promulgated by the national leadership and are customarily ratified at one of the National People’s Congresses that are held every five years.
The 1982 State Constitution guarantees the Chinese people the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the rights to free association, procession and demonstration. (It’s worth noting that the so-called Four Big Rights guaranteed in the 1978 constitution–speaking out freely, full airing of views, great debates and writing big-character posters–have disappeared from the new charter along with the right to strike.)
The right to private property is probably the best protected of the Chinese rights. And I don’t think it’s being cynical to speculate that its protection springs from the increasing influence of the emerging middle and upper classes who have more than ever to protect. It wouldn’t be a big surprise to find that the Chinese Communist Party’s 70 million members (a little over 5% of the total Chinese population) are well above the mean in income and assets.
But I’m not asking what kind of government China has as an excuse to bash the government. Unlike some “Communist” governments of the past, China’s rulers have made enormous strides in lowering the poverty rate, upgrading infrastructure, improving health care and generally making life better for the Chinese people. And if the Party’s efforts to eliminate corruption and reduce pollution haven’t succeeded totally (yet), I give them credit for trying.
And personally, I think the ruling party calling itself “Communist” is a trifle ridiculous. It’s like a full-grown frog calling itself a tadpole. Or maybe it’s like the question Abraham Lincoln used to ask about how many legs a horse has if you call its tail a leg. If anyone answered “five,” Abe would just laugh and say “No, it’s still four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”
I know that there are some people who won’t even consider investing in China because of its government in general, and because it calls itself Communist in particular.
I don’t know how to answer that, except to say that a true capitalist is one who puts money to work in places where it can grow. And money is growing in China and the emerging markets. There’s no arguing with that.
And finally, just to try to get an argument started, I’ll say that the answer to the question about what kind of government China has is: (drum roll) an authoritarian oligarchy. So chew on that for a while.