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Local Autonomy in China During the Cultural Revolution: The Theoretical Uses of an Atypical Case*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Lynn T. White III
Lynn T. White III
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Abstract

This article explores the extent to which Shanghai City, and its subordinate units, have been politically independent of higher authorities in the Chinese government. Evidence from the ‘fifties and early’ sixties suggests increasing managerial and cultural independence at the city level. Evidence from the early Cultural Revolution however suggests conceptual problems in the connection of usual notions of “autonomy” with substantive issue areas, and in their connection with local and central patterns of factions. The slow reconstruction of a local Party hierarchy in Shanghai was paralleled by a decentralization of some commercial and industrial decisions. Shanghai's role as a model in Party rebuilding increased the fully national role of the city's top leadership. Analysis of autonomy, power, or dependence in administrative units is affected when strong local leaders acquire national ambitions. Suggestions are made about the characteristics of an organization these words might describe.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , June 1976 , pp. 479 - 491
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1976

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References

1 A summary of theoretical debate on this subject can be found in Power, Champlin, John R., ed. (New York: Atherton Press, 1971)Google Scholar.

2 Many China specialists have debated the extent of centralization or decentralization in the People's Republic. This is one of the predominant issues of the field, although there is not space here even to list all the important statements on it. A particularly sophisticated debate is in the area of military politics. Whitson, William W., with Chen-hsia, Huang, The Chinese High Command: A History of Military Politics, 1927–71 (New York: Praeger, 1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, argues that the People's Liberation Army is divided into regionally based “loyalty groups.” Critiques of this view are by Parish, William L., “Factions in Chinese Military Politics,” China Quarterly, No. 56 (Oct–Dec, 1973), 667–99Google Scholar, and by Goodman, David S. G., “The Statistical Evidence for Yang Ch'eng-wu's Manipulation of the Military Elite,” China Quarterly, No. 57 (Jan.–Mar., 1974), 148–55Google Scholar. A noncentralist view of Chinese planning is offered in Donnithorne, Audrey, China's Economic System (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1967)Google Scholar. This volume is currently being revised, and Nicholas Lardy has written a dissertatation at the University of Michigan that questions some of Donnithorne's conclusions on the basis of budget data. A relatively centralist perspective is found in Falkenheim, Victor C., “County Administration in Fukien,” China Quarterly, No. 59 (July–Sept., 1974), 518–43Google Scholar. An analytically sophisticated essay that offers five “policy-making arenas” for which this issue can be discussed is Oksenberg, Michael C., “Chinese Politics and the Public Health Issue,” in Medicine and Society in China, Bowers, John Z. and Purcell, Elizabeth F., eds., (New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1974), pp. 128–61Google Scholar. The main purpose of the present article is not to come down on either side of this centralist-localist debate, but to emphasize that a discussion of politics in this type of situation is unlike an analysis of nesting administrative jurisdictions.

3 Summarized in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, April 20, 1969, p. 10.

4 Ying-mao, Kau, The People's Liberation Army and China's Nation Building (White Plains: International Arts and Sciences Press, 1973), p. xxixGoogle Scholar; and Kau's forthcoming book on Bureaucracy and Political Development in Communist China.

5 Donnithorne, Audrey, China's Economic System, pp. 144–5Google Scholar. See also Lardy, Nicholas R., “Economic Planning in the People's Republic of China: Central-Provincial Fiscal Relations,” in U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, China: A Reassessment of the Economy (Washington: GPO, 1975), pp. 94–115Google Scholar.

6 Cf. the table in my “Leadership in Shanghai, 1955–69,” Elites in People's Republic of China, Scalapino, Robert A., ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1972), p. 312Google Scholar.

7 I intend to refine this point in a future book about urban economic institutions in Shanghai, Donnithorne and Lardy, in the works cited above, agree that the city's managerial independence increased in 1958, although they disagree concerning its fiscal autonomy.

8 White, , “Leadership in Shanghai, 1955–69” pp. 334–8Google Scholar.

9 Union Research Service, Hong Kong, XL, No. 26 (August 13, 1965), 185.

10 Mao, Ch'en, Jerome, ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 96–97Google Scholar. Mao's statement was made on October 25, 1966.

11 Wenhui pao (Documentary News), Shanghai (hereafter WHP), November 10, 1965.

12 There is no suggestion here that this kind of problem—which is certainly obvious in Shanghai—cannot apply in principle to other provinces too. A Kao Kang in the Northeast, or later a Huang Yung-sheng from Canton, certainly might have national ideas. The author may sometimes fail to avoid being a Shanghai local chauvinist; but he tries.

13 Hsinmin wanpao (New People's Evening News), Shanghai (hereafter HMWP), February 19 and March 30, 1965.

14 Cf. White, , “Shanghai's Polity in Cultural Revolution,” The City in Communist China, Lewis, John W., ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971), p. 343Google Scholar.

15 Ibid., pp. 328–9.

16 Shanghai wanpao (Shanghai Evening News), Shanghai (hereafter SHWP), October 11, 1911, notes a chiang yung hui at Ts'aoching Commune, organized by land soldiers. The same newspaper on November 16 describes another, organized by airmen; and on November 20, still another such meeting, convened by “a certain unit of the East Sea Fleet” whose quarters is at Woosung in the Shanghai suburbs.

17 Cf. White, , “Leadership in Shanghai,” p. 350Google Scholar.

18 For such a definition, cf. the attempt in “Shanghai's Polity in Cultural Revolution,” pp. 368–9.

19 New China News Agency (hereafter NCNA), Shanghai, July 14, 1967.

20 Cited in “Leadership in Shanghai,” pp. 352–3.

21 NCNA, Peking, January 25, 1967, rephrasing Chieh-fang jihpao (Liberation Daily), Shanghai (hereafter CFJP), editorial.

22 Cf. Nelsen, Harvey, “Military Forces in the Cultural Revolution,” China Quarterly No. 51 (July–Sept. 1972), pp. 444–74Google Scholar.

23 Whitson, , The Chinese High Command p. 253Google Scholar.

24 Chitien chanpao (Machinery and Electricity War Report), Shanghai, published by the Shanghai Revolutionary Rebellion Joint Committee of the First Ministry of Machine Building, February 2, 1967; in the Union Research Institute Library.

25 Tungfang hung (The East is Red), Peking, January 22, 1967.

26 China News Summary, Hong Kong, No. 154 (January 19, 1967) p. A8Google Scholar, based on the January 16 dispatch from Peking of an Asahi shimbun reporter.

27 NCNA, Shanghai, February 27, 1967; tr. Survey of the China Mainland Press, Hong Kong (hereafter SCMP), No. 3890, p. 6Google Scholar.

28 Ibid.

29 NCNA, Shanghai, Apri 1, 1967.

30 Jenmin jihpao (People's Daily), Peking (hereafter JMJP), editorial, September 18, 1967; tr. SCMP 4031, p. 10.

31 Wanshan hungp'ien (Myriad Hills Turn Red), Peking, No. 1 (September 26, 1967); tr. SCMP 4057, p. 5.

32 Hungseh tsaofanche t'unghsün (Red Rebel Bulletin), Kongmoon (Chiangmen), December 12, 1967; in URI library.

33 NCNA, Shanghai, September 18, 1967.

34 Shanghai Radio, June 27, 1967.

35 NCNA, English, Peking, October 23, 1967.

36 Ts'ank' ao tzuliao (Reference Materials), Canton, No. 1, July 1968; tr. SCMP 4222, pp. 1–3.

37 Wenko t'unghsün (Cultural Revolution Bulletin), Canton, No. 13 (March 1968); tr. SCMP 4166, p. 14.

38 WHP, June 30, 1968.

39 Ibid., and Radio Shanghai, November 2, 1969. Cf. also WHP, May 29, 1968, for an article entitled “Take Comrade Chiang Ch'ing as a Model in Carrying Out Revolutionary Mass Criticism and Repudiation to the End.”

40 WHP, April 11, 1968. Cf. also Wenko t'unghsün, No. 13 (March 1968); tr. SCMP 4167, p. 14.

41 WHP, April 28, 1968.

42 Hung szu t'unghsün (Red Headquarters Bulletin), Peking, No. 4–5 (July 1968).

43 Hsingtao jihpao (Singtao Daily), Hong Kong, December 23, 1968.

44 WHP, October 16, 1968.

45 Cf. an investigation report from Shanghai that was reprinted in Hungch'i (Red Flag), Peking, March 13, 1969, and tr. in Survey of China Mainland Magazines, Hong Kong, No. 650, p. 32.

46 WHP, April 4, 1972.

47 Ch'engchien hung szu (Urban Construction Red Headquarters), Canton, No. 8, January 1968; cf. SCMP 4127, p. 11. See also Hung tienhsün (Red Telegraph Report), No. 2 (March 1968) xx. SCMP 4143, p. 12–13.

48 Ts'aimao chanpao (Finance and Trade War Report), Shanghai, August 14, 1968.

49 Radio Shanghai, December 20, 1969.

50 South China Morning Post, March 16, 1969, p. 8Google Scholar.

51 WHP, June 30, 1968.

52 NCNA, English, Shanghai, February 13, 1969.

53 Ibid., February 15, 1969.

54 JMJP, February 28, 1969; an article about Shanghai.

55 NCNA, English, Peking, September 17, 1969.

56 Cf., for example, Ibid., September 19, 1969.

57 This is a heavily interpreted version of Kuangming jihpao (Bright Daily), Peking, January 23, 1970; tr. SCMP 4595, pp. 65–75. This fascinating article, and others like it from the same period, deserve more criticism by professional economists. It should be evident that the most interesting Maoist economic ideas go considerably beyond the mere doctrine of enthusiasm.

58 NCNA, Shanghai, May 18, 1970; and a similar article, ibid., February 25, 1970.

59 Cf. NCNA, Shanghai, April 25, 1972; and ibid., April 30, 1972, announced that Shanghai's output in the first quarter of that year had been an all-time high. See also Lockwood, William W., The Economic Development of Japan: Growth and Structural Change, 1868–1938 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954)Google Scholar.

60 Wenko fenglei (Cultural Revolution Storm), Canton, No. 3, March 1968; tr. SCMP 4149, p. 14. The five were Chang, Yao, Ma T'ien-shui, Wang Shao-yung, and Hsü Ching-hsien. Wang Hung-wen was apparently still considered too junior.

61 WHP, editorial of September 25, 1968; cf. tr. SCMP 4288, pp. 12–13.

62 On May 7 schools in Shanghai: cf. WHP, October 4, 9, and 10, 1968; JMJP, September 8, 1969; and Shanghai Radio, January 14, 1970.

63 Transcript of a report to the Kwangtung Province Revolutionary Committee on the experience of the Shang-hai Revolutionary Committee, in an undated pamphlet; tr. SCMP 4344 (January 23, 1969), p. 1–3.

64 Ibid.

65 Radio Shanghai, June 21, 1969.

66 NCNA, Shanghai, June 13, 1970.

67 Whitson, , The Chinese High Command, p. 550Google Scholar.

68 China Quarterly, “Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation,” No. 46 (April–June 1970), p. 388.

69 Radio Shanghai, July 4, 1969.

70 JMJP, May 24, 1970.

71 NCNA, Shanghai, October 31, 1971.

72 Peking Review 18:4 (January 24, 1975). p. 19Google Scholar.

73 One attempt to define the preliminary traits of an entity that might be described by words like “power” or “dependence” is White, , “Shanghai's Polity in Cultural Revolution,” esp. pp. 357–69Google Scholar.

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