1 GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF CHINA POLS 442/SISEA 449 Susan Whiting, Ph.D. Associate Professor, University of Washington, Seattle

2 Introduction

3 Introducing my current research (“What I did on my summer vacation”)  When Does Law Matter?  Perspectives on “Rule of Law” in China

4 Two Motivating Questions  Why has an authoritarian regime led by the Chinese Communist Party promoted the “rule of law”?  When an authoritarian regime does promote the “rule-of-law,” are citizens empowered?

5 5 1: Why promote “rule of law”?  Political legitimacy  Provide rationale for supporting the regime based on predictable, transparent rules and procedures to govern society  Social stability  Channel and control expression of citizen grievances  Policy implementation  Better monitor the state’s own officials to elicit compliance with central policy  Economic growth  Promote investment by securing property rights and enforcing contracts  International engagement  Facilitate international engagement by aligning more closely with international discourse, norms and practices

6 Why Promote “Rule of Law”? Social stability, among other reasons A protester is dragged away from an industrial park, the site of a 2006 land dispute. (AP photo)

7 Why Promote “Rule of Law”? Social stability, among other reasons

8 Promoting the “Rule of Law”  Major investments by  World Bank, United Nations, International NGOs Billions $ in the developing world, including China  Chinese state

9 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Promoted at the Highest Levels  1996 CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin  China is “building a socialist rule of law state”  1999 Constitutional amendment  “The People’s Republic of China exercises the rule of law, building a socialist country governed according to law” 9

10 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Explosion of new legislation  Passage of laws by National People’s Congress  Across issue areas Land law, for example Land Management Law (1998, revised 2004) Rural Land Contracting Law (2002) Property Law (2007) Labor Environment

11 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Training of legal professionals expanded

12 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Training of legal professionals expanded

13 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Training of legal professionals expanded  Law graduates as of 2006  Bachelor’s  186,000/year (5% of all graduates)  Master’s and Doctoral  19,000/year (9% of all)  Law schools increased from 2 in 1978 to 640 now

14 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Growing legal profession  Lawyers  Licensed, working in law firms full time , , ,000 licensed lawyers Note—very low pass rate on bar  Highly concentrated in major cities

15 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Legal profession in comparative context  Speed of China’s legal development impressive  China vs. Korea  Income per capita, 2002 China US $ 960 KoreaUS $11,280  Lawyers per 10 thousand population, 2002 China 1: 9,510 Korea1: 9,383  Shanghai alone had more than 6,000 lawyers in 592 law firms  Nationwide, Korea had 6,273 lawyers in 258 law firms

16 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Legal professionals push boundaries  Ideological tug-of-war  Emerging cadre of public interest lawyers Push the boundaries of acceptable advocacy Farmers who lose their land Victims of pollution…  State-controlled bar Ministry of Justice administers bar exam, certifies lawyers, licenses firms annually

17 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Judges and courts improving  Better trained judges  New court houses  But, courts subordinate to local party-state No tenure for judges Local governments control funding Local party committee and party political-legal committee have influence over Court personnel Acceptance of cases Handling of cases

18 China’s “Rule of Law” Initiative: Citizen legal consciousness promoted  Active government promotion of laws through public media

19 Two Motivating Questions  Why promote “rule of law”?  Multiple motivations for China’s “rule of law” initiative  Major investment in “rule of law” initiative by Chinese state  Next, are citizens empowered by the “rule of law”?

20 2: Are Citizens Empowered?  To answer this question, case study of cotton-growing community in central China

21 Are Citizens Empowered? What kind of legal issues do they face?  Land  Most valuable asset of farm households  Land disputes—“focal problem of rural China”  Background Land in urban areas: owned by state Land in rural areas: owned by village collectives Rural land is used exclusively for agriculture and rural housing To develop industry or commercial real estate, land must be converted to state land first

22 Are Citizens Empowered? What kind of legal issues do they face?  14% of households in case study experienced land disputes  Multiple types of land disputes

23 Are Citizens Empowered? Land rights are established in law  Rights to 30-year land-use tenure for farmers  Equal land rights for rural men and women  No rights for farmers to sell land for non-agricultural uses  Procedural guarantees in government land takings for non- agricultural uses  Development of arable land for industrial parks, real estate subject to higher-level approval and urban planning processes  Compensation standards set by state  Rights for farmers to sue in court to enforce laws, with legal aid—if needed

24 Are Citizens Empowered? Citizens do learn about their rights

25 Are Citizens Empowered? Citizens do learn about their rights

26 Are Citizens Empowered? Obstacles to protecting their rights  Local officials have powerful incentives to violate farmers’ rights  Rights to land  Rights to compensation for land in context of government land takings  Fiscal incentives  Government sales of “requisitioned” farmland—biggest source of government “off-budget” revenue 615 billion rmb, 3-4% of GDP (2004 estimate) “Important and increasing role of land sales as a source of local finance” Shades into corruption  Career incentives  Attracting investment big career booster Key to promotion for local officials Targets for attracting investment Reduce compensation, offer “cheap” land to lure investors

27 Are citizens empowered? Sources of grievances over land takings  Illegal land takings  Unapproved, no urban planning process  Inadequate/unpaid compensation for land taken

28 Are Citizens Empowered? Government taking of farmers’ land #1  mu (small) land taking for factory in industrial park  Each level of local government kept 10s-100 thousand RMB in revenue from land development  Only 40/71 households received cash compensation  Average household compensation ~6,000 RMB = 800 US$ Per capita net income ~4,000 RMB = US$  Only a few got jobs in new factory

29 Are Citizens Empowered? Government taking of farmers’ land #1  Some households excluded  From cash compensation  From readjustment of remaining farmland  From jobs  Who is excluded?  Especially married daughters and their families living in natal village  Leads to lawsuits over land takings compensation

30 Are Citizens Empowered? Possible channels for dispute resolution  Direct negotiation  Mediation  Petition  Arbitration  Litigation* *venue where law likely to matter most  Other  People’s Congress  Media  Protest/Demonstration  Violence 30

31 Are Citizens Empowered? Exercising the right to sue in court  Disposition of court in woman’s land claim  Mixed picture—some women successful; others not  Example in case study  Court refused to accept case  Court acknowledged right of plaintiff to sue  Court claimed inability to enforce any judgment finding for plaintiff  Court told plaintiff to seek remedy through petitioning government directly

32 Are Citizens Empowered? Handling citizen grievances through legal channels  Recall 26 households reported disputes over land takings compensation  80% reported great or very great impact on life  73% initiated some action in response

33 Outcomes of legal challenges to land takings compared to other land disputes

34 Does Law Matter?  Aspirationally, yes  In least contentious cases, yes  Most citizens  Little contact with legal system Only 14% had land disputes Only 4% had land takings compensation disputes  Reservoir of trust

35 Does Law Matter? Rank Ordering of Trust in Local Government Agencies Court 11 Mass Organizations10 Media 9 Village Committee 8 Legal Aid 7 Lawyer 6 County Government 5 Township Government 4 Township Justice Bureau 3 Petition Office 2 Police 1

36 Does Law Matter?  But, some citizens experience intense grievances  Land takings compensation  Actively use the legal system Hard to challenge interests of local governments in land development Hard to challenge power of village elites in distributing compensation

37 Does Law Matter?  State has promoted law to increase the regime’s legitimacy and to improve governance  Passed and popularized laws to protect rights  Expanded courts and judiciary  Developed legal profession  Land rights, specifically  Part of the “legislative explosion” (Fu 2009)  Also a major source of rural unrest

38 Conclusion  There are divisions within state apparatus itself about how far law can go  “Rule by law”  Acknowledges the power of political elites—like local officials—to override the courts  “Rule of law”  Recognizes law as the ultimate authority  Subject of debate within China itself