The ancient Chinese proverb “the emperor is far away and the mountains are high” signify the perennial power struggle between China’s central leadership and local officials and rings true even today. Due to having a history of regional government-led separationist movements, and a deep-seated national fear of chaos, China’s central government holds tighter onto power than in other large countries. The central government, however, often find – and accept – that local leaders slip out of its policy iron-fist. Although many assume that China exemplifies harsh authoritarianism, then leading scholars argue that China is actually a fragmented authoritarian state (link): local leaders are often not listening to the directives coming from the capital. Or according to a popular Chinese saying: “policy from above, opposition from below”.
Yet why is it so difficult for Beijing to control its localities? While many reasons undoubtedly exist, then China’s size, lack of effective checks and balances and information asymmetry are here argued to play large roles. China’s size – the average population of China’s 31 provinces is 44 million – is one reason why it is difficult for the central government to effectively monitor local politics and ensure compliance with central directives. But in contrast to other large countries such as the US, then China does not have effective checks and balances. The monopoly on power that the Chinese Communist Party has, ironically, makes it more difficult for it to control local leaders. Whereas democracy helps establish effective checks and balances, then the ultimate authority at the local level in China – the Communist Party – is supposed to monitor itself, creating conflicts of interest. Finally, as a result of the country’s vast size it is challenging for the center to understand local conditions as deeply as local officials, why the central government at times allow localities to deviate from central policy to better suit reality on the ground.
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