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The Provincial First Party Secretary in the People's Republic of China, 1949–78: A Profile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

David S. G. Goodman
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The position of first secretary of a provincial committee of the Chinese Communist Party – the highest ranking cadre at provincial level – was not originally one of major importance within the leadership in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established. However, it has become so since largely as a result of the increase in the importance of the provincial level in the party–state system. The increased political significance of the first secretary was demonstrated most dramatically during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–69) when the provincial level was severely affected by the attack on the party–state system. Unlike their counterparts at the centre or sub-provincial levels almost all the provincial first party secretaries in office on the eve of the Cultural Revolution lost their positions as the attempt was made to completely reorganize the provincial level.

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Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1980 , pp. 39 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

1 Only six pre-Cultural Revolution provincial first party secretaries retained any official leadership position immediately after its start. Two remained as the ranking cadre in the same province. Two moved to other provinces as leading cadres. One was transferred to another province as the ranking cadre; and one was demoted in the same province.

2 For example, Donnithorne, Audrey, ‘Central Economic Control’ in Adams, R., ed., Contemporary China (London: Peter Owen, 1968), p. 151Google Scholar; and Chang, Parris H., ‘Research Notes on the Changing Loci of Decision in the CCP’, The China Quarterly (1970), No. 44, 169–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 For example, Moody, Peter R. Jr., ‘Policy and Power: The Career of T'ao Chu, 1956–66’, The China Quarterly (1973), No. 54, 267–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 For example, Falkenheim, V., ‘Provincial Leadership in Fukien’, in Scalapino, R. A., ed., Elites in the People's Republic of China (Seattle: Washington University Press, 1972), 199–244.Google Scholar

5 In particular, Teiwes, F., Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66 (New York: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1967)Google Scholar which, although it comes nearest to requirements with several sections treating provincial first party secretaries as a separate category, is limited in both period and data, having been written before the Cultural Revolution.

6 ‘National minority’ is the term used to refer to the 6 per cent of the population of the PRC who are classified as being non-Han.

7 Purely as a matter of convenience the cut-off date for this study is 1 April 1978.

8 For details see, Shabad, Theodore, China's Changing Map, 2nd ed. (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 24 ff.Google Scholar

9 For an excellent account of this period from a regional perspective see Solinger, Dorothy J., Regional Government and Political Integration in Southwest China, 1949–1954 (Berkeley: University of California, 1977).Google Scholar

10 On the significance of this problem see J. Whitney, B. R., China: Area, Administration and Nation Building (University of Chicago, Department of Geography, research paper, no. 123, 1970), especially p. 42 ff.Google Scholar

11 For details see Lardy, N., Economic Growth and Distribution in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Chap. 3, ‘The 1958 Decentralization’, p. 90 ff.Google Scholar

12 For a discussion of the political context of these changes see Schurmann, Franz, Ideology and Organization in Communist China, 2nd edn. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 195 ff.Google Scholar

13 Domes, Jürgen, ‘The Role of the Military in the Formation of Revolutionary Committees, 1967–68’, The China Quarterly (1970), No. 44, 112–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 Klein, Donald W. and Hager, Lois B., ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, The China Quarterly (1971), No. 45, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Goodman, David S. G., ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’, in Domes, J., ed., Chinese Politics after Mao (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1979).Google Scholar

16 The two differences between the regions as they existed in 1949–54 and 1961–67 were that Kiangsi was in the Central-South region in the earlier period and in the East China region in the latter; and Tibet was brought into the Southwest region during the 19605.

17 For a partial assessment of these bureaux see Solinger, Dorothy J., ‘Some Speculations on the Return of the Regions; Parallels with the Past’, The China Quarterly (1978), No. 75, 623–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 The use of the personal pronoun is deliberate. As will become clear later no woman has ever been a provincial first party secretary.

19 For details see Chang, Parris, ‘Research Note on the Changing Loci of Decision in the CCP’, and Lieberthal, Kenneth, A Research Guide to Central Parly and Government Meetings in China, 1949–75 (White Plains, N.Y.: International Arts and Science Press, 1976).Google Scholar

20 Lu-yen, Liao, ‘Kuan-yu 1956–67 ch'uan-kuo nung-ye fa-chan kang-yao di shuo-ming’, Cheng-chih hsueh-hsi, No. 2 (1956), p. 12.Google Scholar

21 Teng was in fact rehabilitated for the second time in July 1977 shortly before the Eleventh Party Congress. He had been removed from office for the second time officially in April 1976 after the Tien An Men incident.

22 Teiwes, F., ‘Provincial Politics in China’, in Lindbeck, J. M. H., ed., China: Management of a Revolutionary Society (London: Allen and Unwin, 1971), p. 116.Google Scholar

23 The main sources for biographical information that have been consulted include: Who's Who in Communist China, Vol. I and II (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1969 and 1970)Google Scholar; Hierarchies of the People's Republic of China (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1975)Google Scholar; Klein, D. W. and Clark, A. B., Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921–1965 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 1971)Google Scholar; Union Research Biographical Series (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute); Chen-hsia, Huang, Chung-kung chün-jen chih (Mao's Generals) (Hong Kong, Tang-tai-li-shih yea-chiu so, 1968)Google Scholar; Chinese Communist Who's Who (Taipei; Institute of International Relations), 1969 and 1970; and Hsien-tai chung-kuo jen-ming tse-tien (Tokyo, 1966).Google Scholar I would like to thank Prof. Jürgen Domes of the University of Saarland for his help in providing additional biographical information relating to the period before 1949.

24 Translated in the BBC's Summary of World Broadcasts, Part III, ‘The Far East’.

25 Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 37Google Scholar; Domes, Jürgen, China after the Cultural Revolution (London: Hurst, 1976), Chapt. 12, p. 184 ff.Google Scholar; Pye, Lucian W., ‘Generational Politics in the Gerontocracy: the Chinese Succession Problem’, in Current Scene, XIV (1976), No. 7, 1–8.Google Scholar

26 The seminal characterization of the ‘revolutionary generation’ is Klein, Donald W., ‘The “Next Generation” of Chinese Communist Leaders’, The China Quarterly (1962), No. 12, 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 The traditional division between north and south is the Yangtze. Approximately 53·7 per cent of the Chinese population are ‘southerners’. Throughout this study all population figures are based on ‘Provincial population figures’ in Current Scene, XIV (1976), No. 11, pp. 16–19.Google Scholar

28 Based on Goodman, , ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’Google Scholar, which has emphasized the continued hold on power of the revolutionary generation after Mao's death.

29 For an example of these differing interpretations, see Chang, Parris, ‘Decentralization of Power’, p. 67Google Scholar, and Falkenheim, Victor, ‘Continuing Central Predominance’, p. 75Google Scholar, both in Problems of Communism, XXI (1972), No. 4, 67–75, 75–83.Google Scholar

30 Donnithorne, , ‘Central Economic Control’, p. 169.Google Scholar

31 Lewis, John Wilson, Leadership in Communist China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963), p. 134.Google Scholar

32 Barnett, A. Doak, Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China (New York: Columbia, 1967), p. 433.Google Scholar

33 Generally, see Barnett, , Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China, pp. 132–3.Google Scholar On provincial leadership specifically see Teiwes, F., Provincial Leadership in China: The Cultural Revolution and its Aftermath (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Papers, No. 4, 1974), pp. 64–72.Google Scholar

34 Schurmann, , Ideology and Organization in Communist China, pp. 215–16.Google Scholar

35 Teiwes, F., Provincial Parly Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–1966 (New York: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1968)Google Scholar, and Provincial Leadership in China: The Cultural Revolution and its Aftermath (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

36 Predominant career background before achieving first secretary status has been defined according to each cadre's position(s) for the majority of the fifteen years before appointment. Any cadre serving before 1957 has been regarded as having a predominant career background before 1949 and does not fall into the category of cadres having a predominant career background between 1949 and attaining first secretary status. See Table 5 on p. 57.

37 The 141 individuals held 179 tours of duty as follows: 112 had I tour of duty as first secretary; 22 had 2 tours of duty as first secretary; 5 had 3 tours of duty as first secretary; 2 had 4 tours of duty as first secretary.

38 For comparative data on the national leadership see Domes, , China after the Cultural Revolution, Chap. 12.Google Scholar

39 Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 44.Google Scholar

40 Klein, , ‘The “Next Generation” of Chinese Communist Leaders’, pp. 72–3.Google Scholar

41 Throughout this analysis the term ‘region’ refers to the party regions as they existed in the early 1950s and early 1960s unless otherwise qualified.

42 See T'ung-tsu, Ch'u, Local Government in China under the Ch'ing (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard East Asian Studies, No. 9, 1962)Google Scholar, especially Chap. I.

43 Solinger, , Regional Government and Political Integration in Southwest China, 1949–54, Chap. V.Google Scholar

44 See, for example, the speech by Hua, Chiang, First Secretary of Chekiang province, in Jen-min shou-ts'e (Peking, 1958), pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

45 Schurmann, . Ideology and Organization in Communist China, p. 215.Google Scholar

46 Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, p. 72.Google Scholar

47 Teiwes, , Provincial Parly Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, p. 17.Google Scholar

48 Approximately 30 per cent of all first secretaries were native to their province of appointment during 1956–66, but only 5 per cent were during the GPCR.

49 See confirmation by Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, p. 65Google Scholar, Table 13 and p. 107, Table 21, even though he has operationalized a different definition of ‘region’, based on party region and/or neighbouring provinces, and consequently has higher figures.

50 For practical reasons this has been defined as either date of joining the CCP or, in the few cases where the precise date is unknown, first identification in the CCP.

51 Frank, Peter, ‘The CPSU obkom first secretary: a profile’, British Journal of Political Science, 1 (1971), 173–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 Donaldson, Robert H. and Waller, Derek J., ‘A Comparison of the Current Chinese and Soviet Central Committees’, Studies in Comparative Communism, Vol. VI, Nos. 1 and 2, 51–65.Google Scholar

53 For comparative data on the Central Committee see Goodman, , ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’.Google Scholar

54 In all cases, analysis has been based on a cadre's first identification in a province after 1949.

55 On the organization of the PLA and its relationship to the CCP see Nelsen, Harvey, The Chinese Military System (London: Thornton Cox, 1977).Google Scholar

56 For the regions as they existed in the early 19605, see Fig. 1.

57 Schurmann, , Ideology and Organization in Communist China, p. 216.Google Scholar

58 Donnithorne, , ‘Central Economic Control’, p. 177.Google Scholar

59 In Table 9 only those positions which could be filled throughout 1949–78 are recorded.

60 Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, pp. 42–3Google Scholar; Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 47.Google Scholar

61 See Teiwes, Frederick C., ‘The Purge of Provincial Leaders 1957–1958’, The China Quarterly (1966), No. 27, 14–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 Barnett, , Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China, p. 433.Google Scholar

63 Teiwes, , Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

64 Schurmann, , ideology and Organization in Communist China, pp. 215 and 218.Google Scholar

65 Teiwes, , Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, p. 5.Google Scholar

66 In the 1970s, Ninghsia's borders were enlarged so that it became a direct border area.

67 On Hua Kuo-feng's career before 1966, see Oksenberg, Michel and Yeung, Sai-cheung, ‘Hua Kuo-feng's Pre-Cultural Revolution Hunan Years, 1949–66: The Making of a Political Generalist’, The China Quarterly (1977), No. 69, 3–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar