Introduction
China is one of the countries that have the longest history when it comes to the nature of practices in the social and political realms. Historians argue that China is the oldest empire in the world. The height of political developments in China can be traced from the Ming regime to the present Peoples Republic of China. However, the height of political developments in China can be traced from the Qing dynasty to the Peoples Republic of China. A lot of political changes have taken place during the regimes.
This paper discusses the political developments in China during the Qing dynasty, the Republican period, and the Peoples Republic of China. The paper focuses on the struggle by the regimes to extend the central political authority and the challenges faced in trying to attain this goal.
Qing dynasty and centralized political authority
Most researchers who are following up the history of China argue that the Qing dynasty was highly characterized by imperialist tendencies. The boundaries of modern China are marked out of the territory established by the Qing Dynasty that prevailed from 1644 to 1912. According to history, the military conquests that resulted in the broadening of the dynasty point to the issue of power and central control in the Qing dynasty. To establish control, each ruler who ascended to power sought to concentrate power through exercising central control. The leadership experienced during that time can be likened to the hereditary power.
Rulers sought to pass political power to their kinsmen. Within the first century of existence, emperors embraced military conquests in the expansion of the dynasty. A sense of disintegration engulfed the dynasty approximately three hundred years into the existence of the Qing dynasty, resulting in the divide of the dynasty into different dynasties. It is vital to look at the factors that accelerated the move towards disintegration (“Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse” para. 1-3).
First of all, it is vital to observe the Qing dynasty was founded on conquests, meaning that different territories came together by forced bonds. Such bonds could only be maintained if there was complete integration. The implication here is that the dynasty existed on temporary bonds that could be broken by small forces of disagreement. Tensions between Chinese and Machu remained active through the existence of the dynasty. The people of Manchuria, the conquered region, were against the extension of imperialism, while the people of China-backed imperialism (“Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse” para. 3-4).
The other thing that comes out in history is the absence of the spirit of nationalism. This could act as the basis on which the rulers of the dynasty would sustain the central political authority. The dynasty was marked by higher levels of tension emanating from the ethnic differences. Ethnic identity could not be easily established because of the bigger seated differences in practices and culture between the Chinese and the Machu. The continued existence of such tensions implied that emperors took most of the time trying to bridge the ethnic gap. The centrality of political rule and authority of the emperors could only be attained when people were united. In this case, unity only existed in writing, but not in practice (“Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse” para. 9-11).
Qing emperors were oppressive, something that could not sustain their touch with the people. An example is the execution of the writers who seemed to embrace the Machu writings that had been banned by the emperor. This came in combination with the issue of imposing the Machu culture on the Chinese men as a way of showing allegiance to the rule of the Machu. For instance, the Chinese males were required to keep long plaited hair. Failure to do so, a person was seen to be acting in opposition to the political authority. The punishment was death (“Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse” para. 10-11).
Trade developments between Europe and China, especially trade with Britain, also contributed to the inability of the Qing dynasty emperors to enhance central political control. The trade culminated into conflict, where the Qing dynasty was forced to offer a significant amount of authority to the British. This allowed them to exert political influence in the country. To a large extent, the Qing dynasty was converted into a battled ground for agents of the trade from Europe and the United States. These developments weakened the political power of the rulers in the dynasty, thereby culminating into the collapse of the dynasty (“Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse” para. 1-3).
Republican period and central political authority
Siu-Woo (85) observed that the republican period in China was highly marked by the politics of appropriation. Going back to the Qing dynasty period, it can be noted that ethnic identity was one of the forces behind the inability of the emperors to maintain unity. This led to the collapse of the dynasty. The same case of ethnic identity also presents itself in the Republican period, only that it is a stronger force because of the higher level of ethnic awareness that has been promoted by the growth of culture in the country. Therefore, different ethnic groups in China sought to attain a sense of identity through the refreshment of their level of conception about their identities. Thus, ethnic communities became more organized and stronger, making them embrace political activism as a way of exerting influence in the country.
A growth of intellectualism among the ethnic communities resulted in more writings that portrayed the Miao identity. This was common in the communities that inhabited Southwest China. These communities wanted to be recognized in the republican regime. The Republic regime could not easily attain centrality in terms of political control and authority because of the competing ethnicities within the government. Ethnic tensions are impediments to the spirit of nationalism and barriers to the establishment of total central control over the people belonging to a single nation. A study of China before the takeover of the Communist regime in 1949 denotes that the minority ethnic communities in the Southwest region were highly scattered. Therefore, it can be said that the ethnic gaps were strong between the communities, a factor that made it hard for the republican regime to bridge the ethnic gap. It also made it hard for the regime to centralize political power (Siu-Woo 86).
The beginning of the 20th century marked a period where the trade between China and external nations had heightened. Accompanying trade relations was the issue of acculturation. The republican regime had to make adjustments to the antecedents of political rule to sustain the trade with the foreign countries. Western nations embraced a form of liberalism in trade, a factor that influenced the country’s regime to shift from socialism to capitalistic tendencies. It is during this period that the press as a form of communication gained a widespread significance. The government could no longer enforce the activities that pointed to autocracy. Therefore, competition and confusion that came from the rapid political developments (1911-1949) could not offer a room for the establishment of a central political authority (Wakeman 197-199).
The People Republic of China and central political authority
The end of the Republican rule in China paved the communist regime. The change enhanced the participation of the people in politics. This was the first time for the people of China to elect a government. This meant the recognition of political power and control in China by a majority of the people. However, there were some antecedents of central political control within the communist party. The communist party had exercised political control in mainland China and showed signs of deploying the principles of central political authority in the country. However, a need for political bureaucracy to embrace socioeconomic developments was a major force that imposed limits on the communist party when it came to political control and authority in China (Zhou 1036).
Lawrence and Martin (1) observe that a lot of political reforms have been implemented in China since the takeover of the communist party. One of the critical political developments has been the embrace of the spirit of constitutionalism in the country. An open institutional environment has been developed in the country, contrary to the centralized institutional environment in the other rules that encouraged central political authority.
The country has a high number of functional political institutions. These institutions ensure that there is a limited central authority in the country if any. What is impressive is that other small parties now prevail in the country, a factor that promotes participative governance and not a centralized political rule by the communist party. In this case, it can be argued that political reforms in the country have established a political environment that makes it hard for the country to return to centralized tendencies of governance. These reforms have been largely necessitated by the internal pressure of the country to get incorporated into the globalized world to attain its economic goals (Lawrence and Martin 1-3).
Conclusion
China is one of the countries with the longest political history in the world. By the end of the 16th century, the country was marked by conquests as a form of power consolidation and the establishment of centralized political control by the political regimes. The goal for the centralization of political authority is eminent in the history of all the political regimes. From the points presented in the paper, one can conclude that the politics of ethnicity and the external forces are the main forces that have barred the establishment and sustenance of central political control from the Qing dynasty to the present rule. Contrary to the Qing dynasty and the Republican rule, the establishment of central political rule in the Peoples Republic is highly challenged by the forces of globalization, where China seeks to open up to the world for the sake of economic expansion.
Works Cited
Chapter 4: China’s Qing Dynasty and its Collapse. n.d. 2013. Web.
Lawrence, Susan V and Michael F. Martin. “Understanding China’s Political System.” Congressional Research Service. 2013. Web.
Siu-Woo, Cheung. “Miao Identities, Indigenism and the Politics of Appropriation in Southwest China during the Republican Period.” Asian Ethnicity 4.1 (2003): 85-114. Print.
Wakeman, Frederic. Reappraising Republican China. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Zhou, Xueguang. “Political Dynamics and Bureaucratic Career Patterns in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1994.” Comparative Political Studies 34.9 (2001): 1036-1062. Print.