China economic growth will inevitably enhance the standing of the CCP in the

country. Discuss.
After Chinas opening up in 1978, China economy since then has been on an
upward trajectory and as the economy prosper, CCPs legitimacy became
increasingly predicated upon it. While in the course of growing the economy, CCP
might have upset the populace and weakened its own legitimacy, a robust and
blossoming economy will have a strengthening effect on CCPs legitimacy. Hence,
this essay seeks to argue that economic growth will inevitably enhance the
standing of CCP in the country because the success of the economy is enough to
bury the unhappiness the people have against the government and the
prospective ramifications of a declining economy which will most likely occur in a
situation of political instability will be too much for the country to bear.
By bringing in prosperity for the people, economic development will enhance the
standing of CCP and allow them to have the mandate from the people to rule
largely unchallenged and without popular opposition. Economic prosperity has
been the line of defense for CCP that have made it possible for a large majority
of the people to stay at least passively acceptant of CCPs authoritarian rule. Due
to the success of CCP at developing Chinas economy, standards of living for
both the rural residents and the urbanites have vastly and greatly improved.
Since Chinas opening up, 400million people have been lifted out of poverty. In
just 2003 alone, in spite of the outbreak of SARS, 13million jobs were created.
Real income for rural residents grew by 4.3%. CCP, with its promise of peoplecentered development to the country, has been able to gain the continual
support of the people to unite with it in spurring the Chinese economy.
20.95trillion yuan raked in in 2006 shows that CCP has been successful at uniting
the people through economic development, and at the same time safeguard its
legitimacy as people are kept content with the status quo. The economic
successes of the CCP have caused the emergence of a middle class in China that
largely supports the CCP for fear of rocking the boat of prosperity. Hence,
economic growth and CCPs legitimacy does have a positive correlation.
However, dire consequences of economic development also have the countereffect of weakening CCPs legitimacy. China has been plagued by social ills that
are by-products of its economic growth. Economic transformation has resulted in
serious environmental degradation that is detrimental to the health and social
stability of China. Economic success coupled with unequal development has also
exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities, worsening social tensions. Market
reforms have also accentuated dissents against CCP regime as more challenges
to CCPs legitimacy to rule began to surface. The prevalence and rampancy of
corruption that have been exacerbated by Chinas economic success are rooted
in Chinas partially reformed economy and absence of genuine political reforms.
For many years, Beijing, for fear of undermining the supremacy ruling party has
lacked the political will to act against top level party officials and this has
encouraged rampant level of corruption in a patron-client structural relationship.
The recent Bo Xilai saga is a good example: Credibility of governing institutions
was critically undermined; public resentment was fuelled; massive economic
distortions were resulted; and needlessly, CCPs legitimacy was challenged.
Hence, economic growth is not all sunshine and rainbow for the CCP and the
brunt of it may cost CCP.
Moreover, economic development may be inadequate at justifying CCPs rule as
the forces weakening CCPs legitimacy are just too strong. The amount of money

through corruption scandals has risen exponentially since the 1980s. The
absence of competitive political process and free press make it such that the
even the public sector is susceptible to fraud, thefts, kickbacks and bribery. The
direct cost of corruption on the economy amounts to as much as 86billion yuan
each year. The need for foreign investors to risk environmental and human
rights, and financial liabilities to compete against Chinese rivals who engage in
illegal practices and the proliferations of scandals of poisoned food and faulty
products often caused by poor quality control processes serve as a disincentive
for foreign investors to invest in China. Few western companies are willing to
transfer their advance technology to China for fear of patent rights infringement
by unscrupulous Chinese companies, which have the backing of corrupted
officials. CCP legitimacy to rule is weakened by corruption so much so that even
with economic growth, party credential continues to be on a downward spiral.
Nevertheless, Chinas economic strength may aid the implementation of
governments policies so as to curb the forces that weaken its legitimacy. To
solve the problem of corruption, additional committees like the disciplinary and
supervisory committees in CCP and state bureaucracy have been formed. Larger
part of the budget is allocated to civil sector like the PLA to prevent civil servants
from being lured by the enticement of monetary benefits to engage in illicit
activities like shady businesses. Educational campaigns are launched to dissuade
people from engaging corrupt practices. The State-owned Assets Supervision and
administration commission (SASAC) which reports directly to the state council
was also set up to stem misappropriation of public resources. As a by-product of
Chinas economic reforms, relaxation of official control over religious beliefs and
their adherences have also resulted in an insurgence of foreign faith as well as
revival of tradition religion to act as the moral compass of the society in a time
when the society has been blinded by the mindless pursuit of material wealth. In
this way, economic growth can strengthen the standing of CCP.
Economic growth which has also concurrently produced indignant dissents as a
side effect has a negative impact on CCPs standing. As a by-product of Chinas
economic development, the internet liberalized in 1993. Coupled with the influx
of modern and foreign ideas such as freedom of speech and human rights, a
wave of dissent swept China as the better informed populace became more vocal
and critical of the government via the Internet. Despite the Great Firewall and
tens of thousands of censors, dissenters were still able to post petitions that
once would have gone unheard. Peasants post videos of demonstrations on
social media. Protests have expanded so rapidly that the PAP has to be called in
all over China every day to shut them down. The anger against the government
has intensified so much that CCP has to employ propaganda teams like the fiftycent gang to moderate the tone of online debate. Due the unhappiness of the
people fuelled online, CCPs mandate to rule in the eyes of the people was
greatly injured. Hence, economic strength in this case is instead of strengthening
CCPs standing, weakens it.
In conclusion, while in the course of growing the economy, CCP might have upset
the populace and weakened its own legitimacy, a robust and blossoming
economy will have a strengthening effect on CCPs legitimacy. Therefore,
economic growth will inevitably enhance the standing of CCP in the country
because the success of the economy is enough to bury the unhappiness the
people have against the government and the prospective ramifications of a
declining economy which will most likely occur in a situation of political instability
will be too much for the country to bear.