SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Discussion here is generally inclusive of perspective relating to the processes of national political integration in 1949-1954. Firstly, "political integration" is defined in terms of the creation of a new state super-structure, hence there is a review of the problems of integration in terms of the relation between levels of administration and between systems of organization such as the economic and financial departments of state administration. One must also consider the nature of the relation between general systems of army, Party and state. "Political integration" is secondly viewed in larger terms of the relation of the mass line to government. The pattern of national political integration is discussed generally in terms of the transposition of Yenan strategies of leadership and organization to the plane of national political development in the early 1950's. The pre-1949 "pattern" had been characterized by the inter-relation of armed struggle with various political and economic programmes, and it is important to note that the CCP came to power in 1949, already knowing how to govern. The various perspectives outlined above are very general, and the lines of this inquiry are more closely defined for purposes of research. Discussion is structured in terms of a focus on a particular level of administration, namely, the Greater Administrative Region. The pattern of centralization, affected by this level, in fact reveals the transposition of earlier experience to the plane of national political development. The role of this level of government is discussed in terms of several specific problem areas; for example, there is lengthy discussion of specific problems, relating to the creation of a national economy, but there is also discussion of the application of mass line techniques to government in terms of the role of supraprovincial government in the development of the mass campaigns of 1950-52. Many of the policies and strategies discussed are still very much relevant to present-day problems of organization, and it is hoped that a discussion of the pattern of national political integration in the early 1950's will further an understanding of organization in China today.