FACTIONALISM IN CHINESE POLITICS
Chinese politics has been dominated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) since 1949. Its eight “democratic parties” are only allowed passive participation in governance and passive opposition to the ruling party. These two conditions have made the polity a de facto one-party state. The ruling party with a membership of about 80, 000, 000 has been riven by factional infighting. It began factionalising in the 1950s with criticism of the Great Leap Forward. Mao's attempt to suppress factionalism was largely unsuccessful. The party flaunts a façade of monolithic cohesion. However, it is riven by mortally divisive infighting involving factions which use different strategies in their power struggle. The five factions that have existed within the party are: the Gang of Four, Taizi, Tuanpai, the Shanghai Clique and the Zhejiang Clique. The article is sourced with data from literature.
Keywords: chinese, factionalism, politics