Federalism in China - Communist-era Developments

Communist-era Developments

After Chinese Communists established the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi, they aimed at a political system modeled after the union republics of the Soviet Union. According to their plans, China was to be a soviet federal republic with several autonomous republics (such as Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet). During the period of the Long March they established a small autonomous republic for Tibetans in Sichuan. In Shaanxi, however, they changed their nationality policy, abandoning their plan to establish autonomous republics (as in the Soviet Union) in favor of autonomous regions. The first of these to be created was Inner Mongolia in 1947.

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was divided into six semi-independent greater administrative areas. The central government was transferred from the People's Government of North China and just controlled northern China and Inner Mongolia. Other greater administrative areas had more autonomy. This autonomy had ended completely by 1954.

More recently, some economists have argued that during the process of Chinese economic reform that the People's Republic has evolved into a de facto federal state in which provinces have wide discretion to implement policy goals which are set by the PRC central government and in which provinces and localities actively compete with each other in order to advance economically. According to a 2004 study conducted by Bo Zhiyue, Chair of the Department of International Studies at the St. John Fisher College, provincial authorities have greater institutional power than central institutions. Bo concluded that after the 16th Party Congress, due to personnel transfers between the provinces and the centre, the central authorities emerged more powerful, but was still shy of outpowering the provincial authorities on his power index score.