Political Mobility of Chinese Regional Leaders Liang Qiao Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2012 Performance, preference, promotion: political mobility of Chinese regional leaders Liang Qiao Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Qiao, Liang, "Performance, preference, promotion: political mobility of Chinese regional leaders" (2012). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1563. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1563 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PERFORMANCE, PREFERENCE, PROMOTION: POLITICAL MOBILITY OF CHINESE REGIONAL LEADERS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Liang Qiao B.A., Taiyuan University of Technology, 2003 M.A., Peking University, 2006 May 2012 i To Shanxi Province, and Her People ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude is to my advisor, Dr. William A. Clark. I have been truly fortunate to have an advisor who gave me the guidance to help me complete my doctoral study at LSU. His patience and support helped me overcome many crucial situations and finish this dissertation. I hope that one day I would become as good an advisor to my students as Dr. Clark has been to me. I am very grateful to all the professors who had taught me from LSU Department of Political Science; the intellectual training I received from whom is simply priceless. I am thankful to my supportive family and friends back in China. Most importantly, to my parents: I owe you everything, and it is your love that keeps me going. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. xii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 A. Why Regional Leaders in China Are Important? ............................................................. 2 B. Why Study the Political Mobility of Regional Leaders? ................................................. 3 C. Variables and Hypotheses ................................................................................................ 4 D. Regional Leaders’ Political Mobility as the Outcome ..................................................... 7 E. Data and Method ............................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER ONE: CHINESE REGIONAL LEADERS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS .... 12 A. Studies on Chinese Regional Leaders and Their Careers .......................................................... 14 1. The Importance of Regional Leaderships in China ........................................................ 14 2. Regional Leaders as Elites ............................................................................................. 20 B. Typologies of Chinese Regional Leaders .................................................................................... 28 1. Regional Governance in China ...................................................................................... 29 2. Trends of Regional Leaders in Mao Zedong’s Era, Deng Xiaoping’s Era, Compared to Post-Deng Xiaoping Era ........................................................................................................ 35 C. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER TWO: THE RECRUITMENT AND POLITICAL MOBILITY OF CHINESE REGIONAL LEADERS ........................................................................................................... 41 A. Defining Political Mobility ............................................................................................................ 43 1. Organizational Control of Leaders’ Political Mobility .................................................. 44 2. Vertical Political Mobility: From Low to High ............................................................. 46 3. Horizontal Political Mobility: From Region to Region ................................................. 48 4. Cross-Dimensional Transfers between the Executive and the Non-Executive Posts .... 51 5. Where Do the Leaders Go? Movement after Leadership ............................................... 58 B. Measuring Chinese Regional Leaders’ Political Mobility ......................................................... 59 1. The Changing Trends of Regional Leaders in China ..................................................... 59 2. Toward Some Rules of Thumb with Measurements of Political Mobility .................... 62 C. Conclusion: Regional Leaders under the Mobility Whip ........................................................... 66 iv CHAPTER THREE: BACKGROUND AND OPPORTUNITIES: THE MAKE OF CHINESE REGIONAL LEADERS ............................................................................................................... 69 A. Biological and Personal Background of Regional Leaders in China........................................ 72 1. Age ................................................................................................................................. 72 2. Gender and Nationality .................................................................................................. 82 3. Locality........................................................................................................................... 88 4. Education ........................................................................................................................ 96 B. Organizational and Professional Background of Regional Leaders in China ....................... 101 1. Party Membership and Party School Trainings ........................................................... 102 2. Communist Youth League Experiences of Regional Leaders ..................................... 107 C. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 111 CHAPTER FOUR: FISCAL REVENUES, GEOPOLITICAL SETTINGS AND POLITICAL MOBILITY OF CHINESE REGIONAL LEADERS ................................................................. 116 A. Regional Political Importance Evaluated through the Levels of Socioeconomic Development ....................................................................................................................................... 120 1. Weighing Economic Growth and GDP Achievements in Chinese Politics ................. 121 2. Financial Revenues and Allocations of Chinese Regions ............................................ 128 B. Previous Posts and Chief Leadership Experience of Chinese Regional Leaders .................. 139 C. Toward the Political and Geopolitical Patterns of Political Mobility among Chinese Regional Leaders ................................................................................................................................ 147 1. Classification of Regional Leaderships Posts, Regional Settings, and Background Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 147 2. Political Mobility Analysis of Chinese Provincial Leaders ......................................... 156 3. Political Mobility Analysis of Chinese City Leaders ................................................... 169 D. Conclusion: Chinese Political Elites “on the Go” .................................................................. 180 1. Political Mobility and the Preferred Characteristics of Chinese Regional Elites ........ 180 2. Political Mobility and Regional Leaders’ Performance ............................................... 182 CHAPTER FIVE: FOR THE HARMONIOUS SOCIETY: BEYOND ECONOMIC REASONING AND HOW NOT TO GET PROMOTED .................. 189 A. Downward Political Mobility Analysis of Chinese Regional Leaders in Post-Deng Xiaoping Era ........................................................................................................................................................ 196 1. Corruptions, Serious Violations, Accidents and the Removals of Chinese Regional Leaders ................................................................................................................................. 199 2. The Possibility and the Degrees of Punishments: What’s Hard to Gauge? ................. 204 3. Analysis of Chinese Regional Leaders’ Removals ...................................................... 212 4. Findings .......................................................................................................................