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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 Policy-Making in the PRC: A Study of the Variations in Decision-Making Across Three Issue Areas; 1969-1978 Ian Mark Seckington School of Oriental and African Studies This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Abstract This thesis examines the policy-making process in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between 1969 and 1978. By undertaking a study of three issue areas (agriculture, foreign policy and higher education), this thesis challenges many of the conclusions of earlier single-issue or broad band studies of the decision-making process in the PRC which failed to generate sufficiently detailed information to allow comparisons to be made regarding policy-making across issue areas. This thesis highlights variations in the decision-making process which suggest that the pattern of decision-making in each of the three issue areas under study appears to be independent of most of the developments in the other fields. Policy-making in each area appears to follow its own internal logic such that a radical upsurge in one field is not necessarily matched by a similar upsurge in either, or one of, the other areas. Furthermore, the influence of the various groups competing over policy also appears to vary, both across each area and with time. So, for example, the radical Left dominated higher education policy from 1969 to their purge in 1976, but had little influence over foreign policy during this period. This study suggest that the fundamental reason for these variations is that the senior Party leadership, and in particular Mao Zedong, made an assessment as to the possible consequences of failure for radical policies in each of the three issue areas, and that where the cost was seen as too great, the radical influence was restricted and a more pragmatic line adopted. So, for example, this research shows that throughout this period agriculture was characterised by a cyclical pattern whereby radical policies were curtailed during Spring and Autumn, periods of peak activity for agriculture. Similarly, radical activity in the foreign affairs system was stopped following the threat of a possible war with the Soviet Union in 1969. 2 Table of Contents List of abbreviations used 4 Chapter One Decision-making in the People’s Republic of China 5-36 Chapter Two Political Developments in the PRC,1969-1978 37-80 Chapter Three Higher Education 81-168 Chapter Four Agriculture 169-262 Chapter Five Foreign Policy 263-326 Conclusion The Compartmentalization of Policy-making in the 327-344 PRC Bibliography 345-380 3 List of Abbreviations Used CAS Chinese Academy of Sciences OCR Chinese Communist Party CPPCC Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference CRSG Culturai Revolution Smaii Group MFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs NPC National People’s Congress PLA People’s Liberation Army PRC People’s Republic of China RMB Renminbi SEG Science and Education Group UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization US United States of America USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 4 Chapter One Decision-making in the People’s Republic of China As it emerges as a leading actor in world politics there is an ever greater need for a clearer understanding of the decision-making process in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). China now plays an increasingly important role both regionally and internationally and its political system has been the focus of considerable academic interest. As other countries engage with China over a wide range of issues it is important that this interest generates clearer insights into the decision-making process in the PRC which will both deepen our understanding of its political system and which can underpin western responses to that country. The importance of this topic is compounded by the opacity of the decision­ making process in China, which has made any study of that process very difficult. Since its foundation in 1949, the political system in China has largely remained closed to outside observers, hampering foreign, as well as domestic, commentators. The failure to institutionalize the decision-making system and a restricted official media are leading factors behind the opacity of the policy­ making process which hamper further research: In the PRC, decision-making on key issues usually takes place in private, closed-door sessions, leaving the public meetings of bodies like the National People’s Congress to pass decisions that have already been taken. This thesis attempts to illuminate the decision-making process in China through a study of policy-making in higher education, agriculture, and foreign policy during the period 1969-78. Using newly available material, newspapers and journals, this study will examine variations in the policy-making process across these three areas and suggest that there is a high degree of “compartmentalization” in the policy-making process in China, such that 5 decision-making in each area had its own coherent logic and followed a pattern largely independent of the other areas. While drawing on the contributions of earlier studies of decision-making in the PRC, this thesis attempts to develop an explanation for this apparent “compartmentalization”, a phenomenon that has been ignored by these earlier works. In attempting to explain this phenomenon this thesis underlines the importance of senior political leaders like Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping in setting the agenda in each of the three areas studied. The leading role of Mao in the decision-making process is recognized in line with the “Mao- in-command” and “Mao-as-arbiter” models as set out by authors such as Frederick Teiwes and Galen Fox, but this thesis also examines the role of other senior leaders and attempts to set out the factors that mediated Mao’s and their role to develop a new explanation of the policy-making process during the Cultural Revolution. The findings of this thesis also question the view of decision-making during the Cultural Revolution that emphasizes the importance of informal relationships, that is factional ties, bureaucratic affiliation etc. over formal position and structures. Without completely over-turning this view, the findings of this thesis suggests that greater emphasis needs to placed on formal position, that is membership of leading decision-making and administrative bodies, as a means of influencing the policy-making process. This thesis examines the period from 1969-78. Although developments in this period were not isolated from the mobilization phase of the' Cultural Revolution, I begin in 1969 as this year marked the start of a series of intense policy debates generated by concerns over China’s future direction during efforts to rebuild in the wake of the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution. As major policy debates were occuring in a number of sectors, this facilitates the approach of this thesis, which attempts to contrast policy-making across 6 different areas, by providing examples of major policy decisions in each of the three areas chosen; higher education, agriculture, and foreign policy. Furthermore, newly available sources offer detailed insights into these debates and were a major reason'for chosing to study policy-making during the second part of the Cultural Revolution. Policy-making during this period has often been over-looked in studies which have only focused on factional conflict between competing groups at the expense of the policy process, or in general studies seeking to understand the origins of the Cultural Revolution.