6. Central-Local Relations

Mao Zedong: On Ten Great Relations (April 25, 1956), Mao Zedong’s Collected Works, Volume 7, P. 31, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1999.

Mao Zedong: Seven-Character Lvshi ‘On Feudalism’ to Guo Moruo, August 5, 1973, Mao Zedong’s Manuscripts Since the Founding of the P.R.C., Book 13, P. 36, Beijing, Central Party Literature Press, 1998.

Ci Hai defines the ‘great unification’ as the unification of the entire territory. Yang Songhua defines the system of unification as a historic period of up to 2132 years from BC 221 (the First Emperor of the Qin) to 1911 BCE when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the Revolution. Ancient China implemented a set of basic systems for politics, economics, culture, and S&T. One emperor and one government played the core role, and a national system of unified administration was implemented in all nations inside China’s territory. Yang Songhua: The Great Unification System and China’s Vicissitudes, Beijing Publishing Press, 2004.

Book of Han—Wang Ji’s Record.

Yang Songhua: Great Unification of the System and China’s Vicissitudes, Beijing Publishing Press, 2004, Yang Songhua: Great Unification of the System and China’s Vicissitudes, Beijing Publishing Press, 2004.

For further discussion of financial reforms during this period, see Young, Arthur N., China’s Nation-Building 1927–1937: the Financial and Economic Record, PP. 1–11, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1971. Young acted as a financial counselor to the Kuomintang government from 1929 to 1947. See Wang Shaoguang: Enlightenment of the American Progressive Era, Beijing, China Financial and Economics Publishing House, 2002.

The Common Programme of September 1949 stipulated that the P.R.C. build a unified army, namely, the P.L.A., and a people’s security force, to be commandeered by the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People’s Government, and to be subject to unified command, system, establishment, and laws.

The European Union (English: European Union; French: Union Européenne, Germany: Europäischer Union) is hereinafter referred to as the E.U., which is headquartered in Brussels, and which developed from the European Community.

Mao Zedong: On Ten Great Relations, April 25, 1956, Mao Zedong’s Collected Works, Volume 7, P. 31, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1999.

When discussing local-central relations, Mao Zedong said: ‘Our Constitution provides that local governments have no legislative power, and that legislative power should be centralized in the National People’s Congress. We have learned from the Soviet Union. It seems that this doesn’t apply to the U.S.A. American states can make laws, and state laws can oppose the federal constitution. It seems that state legislation in finance and tax revenue is different. The U.S.A. is a developed country, taking only 100 years to become prosperous, which is worth investigating. Its political system is also worth studying. It seems that we need to expand local power. Weak local power is disadvantageous to socialist construction”. The above content is not included in Mao Zedong’s On Ten Great Relations, but was recorded by Bo Yibo based on Mao’s speech at the Expansion Meeting of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee on April 25, 1956, and the Supreme State Conference held by Mao Zedong on May 2, 1956). See Bo Yibo: Review of Several Important Decisions and Events, Volume II, Beijing, Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C. Press, 1993. Mao Zedong believed that excessive centralization was unfavorable, and was not good for mobilizing all powers to build a powerful country. “Drawing lessons from the Soviet Union, the C.P.C.’s history should be reviewed, so as to resolve the issue of centralization and decentralization properly”. Mao Zedong: Concluding Remarks at the Expansion Meeting of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, April 28, 1956, Mao Zedong’s Collected Works, Volume 7, P. 52, 54, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1999.

Suggestions on the Second Five-Year Plan for National Economic Development at the Eighth National People’s Congress of the C.P.C. Central Committee (1958–1962), approved on the Second National People’s Congress of the Eighth C.P.C. Central Committee on September 27, 1956. Selected Important Literature Since the Founding of the P.R.C., Version 9, P. 319, Central Party Literature Press, 2011.

At a Spring Festival Gathering held by the central government, Mao Zedong said: “Excessive centralization of power constrains productivity. I am an advocate of a ‘constitutional monarchy’. The central government must handle affairs, but not too much. Most affairs can be handed over to provinces and cities that do better than us (central government, departments and ministries)”. See Bo Yibo: Review of Several Important Decisions and Events, Volume II, PP. 796–797, Beijing, Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C. Press, 1993.

Mao Zedong: Speech at the Chengdu Meeting, March, 1958, Mao Zedong’s Collected Works, Volume 7, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1999.

The central government issued the Notice on Delegating Directly Affiliated Enterprises of Industrial and Traffic Departments of the State Council to Local Governments, Request for Instructions by Core Teams and Revolutionary Committees Built by All Departments of the State Council, Outline of the Fourth Five-Year Plan (Draft), which required directly affiliated departments of the central government to gradually delegate most enterprises and institutions to local governments in 1970.

Tan Zongji, Ye Xinyu: Record of the P.R.C.’s Reform and Major Changes—Initiating a New Pattern of Modernization (1977–1983), Volume IV, (I), PP. 235–236, Changchun, Jilin People’s Publishing House, 1994.

Deng Xiaoping: The Central Government Must Have Authority, September 12, 1988, Deng Xiaoping’s Selected Works, Volume 3, PP. 277–278, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1993.

Deng Xiaoping: The Central Government Must Have Authority, September 12, 1988, Deng Xiaoping’s Selected Works, Volume 3, PP. 277–278, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1993.

Deng Xiaoping: With Stable Reform and Opening Policies, China Stands a Good Chance (September 4, 1989), Deng Xiaoping’s Selected Works, Volume 3, P. 319, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1993.

C.P.C.’s Decision on Several Issues about Building Socialist Market Economic System (approved in the Third Plenary Session of the 14th C.P.C. Central Committee on November 14, 1993), C.P.C. Party Literature Research Office: Selected Important Literature Since 14th C.P.C. Central Committee, Book I, P. 534, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1996.

Jiang Zemin: Correct Handling of Several Important Issues in the Drive for Socialist Modernization, September 28, 1995, Jiang Zemin’s Selected Works, Volume 1, P. 472, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 2006.

In 1982, Zhao Ziyang, then Premier of the State Council, said: ‘We must stick to central planning, local freedom, centralization, local decentralization, set our chess-pieces in order, and give play to the role of local initiatives’. To publish Zhao Ziyang Several Problems Facing the Current Economic Work, March 4, 1982, Compilation of Important Works Since the Third Plenary Session (II), P. 1194, People’s Publishing House, 1982.