Toward an Understanding of Chinese Politics

A REPORT of changes in the government of China is likely to ,'~i be out of date before it can be read in other countries, and it is certain to come short of giving a true picture of the confounding confusion in Chinese politics during December and January last. Political disorganization is accompanied by disorganization of news. Those active in the factional game give contradictory reports of simple happenings in their own parts of the arena, and of course do not agree upon general tendencies or their meaning. Observers are dependent upon partial, prejudiced information in meager fragments which are difficult to relate to each other. Press reports are sadly unsatisfactory in presenting conditions which are not what they seem, and where men do not dare to say what they mean. The Chinese public is more widely discouraged and distrustful than usual, and no political group has confident hopes in the face of overwhelming problems. Yet' the very difficulty of understanding the situation requires that different observers from varied points of vantage shall make their respective efforts, however timidly. In this spirit the present article will attempt to make a brief statement of the general setting and of the main principles of the Chinese governmental system, to indicate the forces and conditions immediately behind recent changes, then to describe the form and suggest the meaning of these changes, and finally to risk a few comments on the outlook (as of late January)

China · Confusion · Economics · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Government (linguistics) · Law and economics · Linguistics · Meaning (existential) · Original meaning · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Statement (logic) · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology