Autonomous regions
➔ A territorial unit that is equivalent to a province and contains a large concentration of ethnic minorities.
Cadres
➔ A person that exercises a position of authority in a communist party-state.
Central Committee
➔ The top 350 or so leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. It meets annually for about two weeks and is charged with carrying on the business of the National Party Congress when it is not in session.
Central Military Commission (CMC)
➔ The most important military organization in the People's Republic of China. Headed by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, who is the commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army.
Chiang Kai-shek
➔ A Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
➔ The founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Collectivism
➔ The theory and practice of the ownership of land and the means of production by the people or the state.
Confucianism
➔ A system of philosophical and ethical teachings that has shaped Chinese culture.
Cultural Revolution
➔ A chaotic mass movement in the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong launched it in 1966, claiming that elitists were undermining the government and Chinese society.
Deng Xiaoping
➔ Was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman. He was the paramount leader of China from 1978 until his retirement in 1992 (economic reforms!!).
Floating population
➔ Migrants from the rural areas who have moved temporarily to the cities to find employment.
Free market
➔ An economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
General Secretary
➔ The formal title of the head of the Chinese Communist Party. From 1942 to 1982, theposition was called "chairman" and was held by Mao Zedong.
Great Leap Forward
➔ A utopian effort to speed up the country's development so rapidly that China would catch up economically with Britain and the United State in just a few years. (backyard steel mills)
Guanxi
➔ A Chinese term that means "connections" or "relationships" and describes personal ties between individuals based on such things as common birthplace or mutual acquaintances.
Han
➔ The great majority of China's citizens that are ethnically Chinese.
Household responsibility system
➔ The system put into practice in China beginning in the early 1980s in which the major decisions about agricultural production are made by individual farm families based on the profit motive rather than by a people's commune or the government.
Hu Jintao
➔ Leader of China between 2002 and 2012.
Iron Rice Bowl
➔ A feature of China's socialist economy during the Maoist era (1949-1976) that provided guarantees of lifetime employment, income, and basic cradle-to-grave benefits to most urban and rural workers.
Li Keqiang
➔ Current Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Mao Zedong
➔ A Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founding father of the People's Republic of China.
Maoism
➔ The communist doctrines of Mao Zedong as formerly practiced in China, having permanent revolution as a central idea and stressing the importance of the peasantry, of small-scale industry, and of agricultural collectivization.
National Party Congress
➔ The symbolically important meeting held every five years for about two weeks with about 2,200 representatives of the Chinese Communist Party, who endorse policies and the allocation of leadership positions that have been determined beforehand by the party's much smaller ruling bodies.
National People's Congress (NPC)
➔ The legislature of the People's Republic of China. It is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party and is not an independent branch of government.
Nationalist Party (KMT)
➔ Current ruling political party in Taiwan.
Nomenklatura (Cadre List)
➔ A system of personnel selection under which the Communist Party maintained control over the appointment of important officials in all spheres of social, economic, and political life.
People's Liberation Army (PLA)
➔ The combined army forces of the People's Republic of China which includes land, sea, air, and strategic missile forces.
Politburo/Standing Committee
➔ The committee made up of the top two dozen or so leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. A subgroup of the Politburo, with 7 members. The most powerful political organization in China.
Premier
➔ Also referred to informally as the "Prime Minister", is the Leader of the State Council of China who is the head of government and holds the highest rank in Civil Service.
Special Economic Zones (SEZs)
➔ Designated areas in countries that possess special economic regulations that are different from other areas in the same country.
State Corporatism
➔ A political system in which the state requires all members of a particular economic sector to join an officially designated interest group. The result is that the state has great control over the groups, and groups have great control over their members.
Sun Yat-sen
➔ A Chinese revolutionary, first president and founding father of the Republic of China
Technocrats
➔ Career-minded bureaucrats who administer public policy according to a technical rather than a political rationale.
"Two Chinas"
➔ A way of describing the income differences of urban and rural Chinese citizens. Urbanwealthy, Rural-poor
Xi Jinping
➔ General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the president of the People's Republic of China, and the chairman of the Central Military Commission.
Youth League
➔ A youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of fourteen and twenty-eight and run by the Communist Party of China (CPC).