Comparative Politics of Russia & China

• Study guide for China + Russia test includes information on the constitution, institutions, representation, military, economy, society, civil liberties, cleavages, and major developments of both countries.
• Additionally covers a vocabulary list of key terms and people in the study of the countries

Constitution - Ratification and Amendments

• Russia's constitution was ratified in 1993, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• China's constitution was ratified in 1982.
• Amendments in Russia can be proposed by the President, Duma, Federation Council, or Federal Subjects.
• The 2020 Russian amendments, approved by 79% in a referendum, included banning ceding Russian territory, removing presidential term limits, prioritizing Russian constitution over international law, and banning gay marriage.
• In 2022, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson were annexed into Russia according to constitutional amendments.
• China's constitution can be amended every five years at the National People’s Congress (NPC).
• The 1988 Chinese amendments allowed a private sector and land use transfer to private industry.
• The 2018 Chinese amendments included adding Xi Jinping Thought to the constitution, enshrining CCP leadership, and removing term limits for Xi.

Institutions

• Russia's legislative body is the Federal Assembly, comprising the Duma (lower house) and the Federation Council (upper house).
• China's legislative body is the National People's Congress, which is de facto subservient to the CCP.
• In Russia, the President is the head of state, who then appoints the Prime Minister and functions autocratically, ruling by decree.
• In China, executive power is held by the party leadership (General Secretary), with the President holding a ceremonial role.
• Russia operates under code law, where courts do not set precedent and the Constitutional Court is theoretically independent but de facto controlled by the executive.
• China also operates under code law, where the Supreme People’s Court is controlled by the executive (party), illustrating rule by law.

Representation

• Russia directly elects the President every six years.
• The Duma is elected through a mixed system (half proportional representation, half single-member districts) every five years.
• The Federation Council (Senate) is appointed.
• In China, citizens may vote in lower (village) elections to elect the local representatives.
• The CPC Central Committee elects the General Secretary and the NPC elects the President.
• Russia uses 225 districts based on population.
• Citizens in Russia cast two votes for the Duma: one for a single member and one for proportional representation.
• The NPC is composed of quotas by region (provinces, autonomous regions, direct-controlled municipalities, Special Administrative Regions) with no proportional representation.

Military

• Russia's military is formally a state institution.
• The Russian President is the commander-in-chief.
• Private Military Companies (PMCs) like Wagner operate globally as extensions of foreign policy.
• Russia's defence budget is approximately $130 billion USD, ranking third globally, its legitimacy is based on demonstrating strength abroad.
• China's military is the armed wing of the PLA, not a national army.
• China has expanded through artificial island bases in the South China Sea (nine-dash line).
• The military is also used for domestic security and disaster relief.
• China's defence budget is approximately $300 billion USD, ranking second globally, its legitimacy is based on modernization as part of Xi’s "China Dream" vision.

Economy

• The 1980s in Russia marked the Gorbachev era, with a transition from a state-controlled economy to a market-oriented system through Perestroika.
• High inflation and a lack of market economy foundations characterized this period.
• The government subsidized shortfalls, increasing expenditures.
• In China, Deng Xiaoping led the transition to a market-oriented system through Reform and Opening Up.
• China privatized agriculture, increased food production, created Special Economic Zones for foreign investment, and partially privatized State Owned Entrerprises (SOE).
• The 2000s-present for Russia saw Putin recentralize and deoligarchize, replacing oligarchs with siloviki to create state-dominated monopolies, focusing on resource exports.
• China experienced rising GDP growth, privatized most SOEs, land reform led to rural-urban migration.
• China joined the World Trade Organization, decreased poverty for 600 million people.
• The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was also launched during this period.

Society

• Russia has a population of 143 million, which is aging and declining.
• 80% of Russia's population is Russian, with 20% minorities (Tatar, Chuvash, Chechen).
• The Russian population is experiencing high emigration and brain drain.
• China has a population of 1.4 billion, which is aging and declining as well.
• 91% of China's population is Han, with 9% minorities (Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian).
• China is experiencing rural to urban migration.
• Russia's GINI is 37.5, and China is 38.5, both moderate.
• Russia's life expectancy is lowered by alcoholism and they are the 3rd globally for carbon emissions.
• China experiences severe pollution of air, water, and soil, and 1st in carbon emissions.

Civil Liberties

• Freedom of speech is very restricted in both Russia and China.
• In Russia, criticism of the military and government is criminalized.
• In China, some local protests are tolerated (e.g., environment).
• Press is highly censored in Russia, with limits on independent media.
• All media is state-run in China, with high censorship and monitoring of speech online.
• Russian telecom companies must include hardware for the FSB to monitor online activity.
• China uses AI and 700 million cameras to monitor online speech.
• Russia experiences crackdowns on opposition and protests.
• China experiences severe crackdowns on protests related to Hong Kong or Xinjiang.

Cleavages

• Russian Orthodoxy (majority, state-supported) vs. Islam is a religious cleavage in Russia.
• In China, religious cleavages include growing Christianity (house churches), Muslims in the northwest, and Tibetan Buddhists.
• Nationalism divides Russian vs. minority ethnicities e.g., Chechens.
• In China, nationalism divides Han Chinese vs. minorities like Uyghur, Hui, Tibetan.
• Language divides Russian vs. many other languages in Russia.
• China includes Standardized Chinese for education but many local varieties, many non-Chinese languages, where language policy harms non-Chinese languages.
• Russia and China both experience a severe rural-urban discrepancy.

Major Developments

• Russia major developments include removal of term limits for Putin, crackdowns on opposition (Alexei Navalny, Yevgeniy Prigozhin), annexation of Crimea, loss of influence in Syria, sanctions from the West, and poor relations.
• As of today, possible negotiated end to Ukraine war; Ukraine may cede territory and be unable to join NATO.
• China major developments include removal of term limits for Xi, Hong Kong protests, repression in Xinjiang, trade war with the US, potential conflict to "reunify" with Taiwan.
• The CHIPS act limits US companies manufacturing in China.
• China is facing rising unemployment and youth frustration with intense 996 work life; “lying flat” movement.
• China has made major advances in AI, stealth fighters, infrastructure projects.

Vocabulary

• Anticorruption Campaign: Xi Jinping’s campaign against corruption, launched in 2012, used to tackle malfeasance and eliminate political rivals.
• Beijing Consensus: Neomercantilist model of state-led capitalist development adopted by China, proposed as an alternative to the Washington Consensus.
• Belt and Road Initiative: China’s infrastructure development and investment project launched in 2013, designed to link China to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.
• Century of Humiliation: China’s self-described long century (1839–1949) of intervention and exploitation by Western and Japanese imperialists.
• Chinese Communist Party (CCP): Authoritarian party that has ruled China from 1949 to the present.
• Chinese Dream: Xi Jinping’s policy vision calling for China’s national rejuvenation, modernization, and prosperity.
• Confucianism: Philosophy attributed to Confucius, emphasizing social harmony.
• Cultural Revolution: Mao’s movement launched in 1966 to regain political control, resulting in social and political chaos.
• Danwei (work unit) system: Maoist program providing citizens lifetime affiliation with a work unit governing all aspects of their lives.
• Deng Xiaoping: Paramount leader who launched China’s policy of economic reform and opening.
• Falun Gong: Meditative martial arts movement banned by the Chinese government in 1999 as an “evil cult”.
• Floating Population: itinerant peasants seeking urban employment since the 1990s.
• Great Leap Forward: Mao’s effort to modernize China through localized industrial production and agricultural communes.
• Harmonious Society: term for economic reform but with concern for the wealth and welfare gap between urban and rural China.
• Household Responsibility System: Deng’s 1980s rural reform program that lowered production quotas and allowed sale of surplus agricultural produce on the free market.
• Hu Jintao: China’s paramount leader from 2002 to 2012.
• Hukou (household registration) system: Maoist program that tied all Chinese to a particular geographic location.
• Hundred Flowers Campaign: Program in which Mao encouraged intellectuals to offer criticism of national policy, followed by crackdown on critics.
• Iron Rice Bowl: Term for Mao’s promise of cradle-to-grave health care, work, and retirement security.
• Jiang Zemin: Deng’s successor as China’s paramount leader.
• Kuomintang (KMT): China’s Nationalist Party founded by Sun Yat-sen and led by Chiang Kai-shek, who was overthrown by Mao’s communists in 1949 and forced to flee to Taiwan.
• Li Keqiang: China’s premier and head of government (2013–2023).
• Long March: The CCP’s heroic retreat to northwestern China during the country’s civil war with the Chinese Nationalist Party, the KMT.
• Mao Zedong: Leader of the Chinese communist revolution, who dominated Chinese politics from the founding of the PRC until his death in 1976.
• May Fourth movement: Student-led anti-imperialist cultural and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919.
• National Party Congress: Chinese Communist Party’s representative body; more akin to a national political party convention.
• National People’s Congress (NPC): China’s national legislature.
• One country, two systems: Term for China’s guarantee to Hong Kong of 50 years of domestic autonomy as a “special administrative region”.
• People’s Liberation Army (PLA): China’s military.
• Red Capitalists: Private entrepreneurs who are also members of the CCP and whose interests generally align with those of the party-state.
• Red Guards: Radicalized youth who served as Mao’s shock troops during the Cultural Revolution.
• Reds versus experts: Term describing Mao’s policy favoring politically indoctrinated party cadres (Reds) over those people who had economic training (experts).
• Reform and opening: Deng’s economic liberalization policy, starting in the late 1970s.
• Social Credit System (SCS): State-implemented behavioral modification system that tracks the economic and social actions of Chinese citizens and businesses.
• Special Economic Zones: Enclaves established since 1979 by the Chinese government that have offered tax breaks and other incentives to lure foreign investment.
• Sun Yat-sen: Founder of China’s Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and considered the father of modern China.
• Three Represents: Jiang Zemin’s 2001 policy co-opting private entrepreneurs into the CCP.
• Tiananmen Square: Historic plaza in Beijing where the Chinese party-state crushed the 1989 pro-reform demonstration.
• Uighurs: Ethnic Muslim, Turkic minority residing in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, subject to efforts of forced assimilation.
• Xi Jinping: China’s paramount leader, serving as CCP general secretary, PRC president, and CMC chairman.
• Asymmetric Federalism: A system in which power is divided unevenly among regional bodies, a more likely outcome in a country with significant ethnic divisions​.
• Chechnya: Russian republic that has been a source of military conflict since 1991​.
• Constitutional Court: The highest body in the Russian legal system, responsible for constitutional review​.
• Duma: Lower house of the Russian legislature​.
• Federal Security Service (FSB): Successor to the KGB, the Russian intelligence agency​.
• Federation Council: Upper house of the Russian legislature​.
• Glasnost: Literally, “openness”; the policy of political liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s​.
• Insider Privatization: A process in Russia firms were privatized​.
• Kremlin: Eleventh-century fortress in the heart of Moscow that has been the historical seat of Russian state power​, a metonymy for the Russian state.
• Medvedev, Dimitry: President of Russia from 2008 to 2012; prime minister of Russia from 2012 to 2020; current head of the United Russia Party​.
• Navalny, Alexei: Political activist who had been detained repeatedly for his opposition to Putin and United Russia​ and was killed in 2024.
• Nomenklatura: Politically sensitive or influential jobs in the state, society, or economy that were staffed by people chosen or approved by the Communist Party​.
• Oligarchs: Russian people noted for their control of large amounts of the Russian economy, their close ties to the government, and the accusations of corruption surrounding their rise to power​.
• Orthodox Christianity: A variant of Christianity separate from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; originally centered in Byzantium (now roughly modern-day Turkey)​.
• Parties of Power: Russian parties created by political elites to support their political aspirations; typically lacking any ideological orientation​.
• Perestroika: Literally, “restructuring”; the policy of political and economic liberalization implemented in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s​.
• Putin, Vladimir: Current president of Russia, as of 2012; also president of Russia from 1999 to 2008; prime minister from 2008 to 2012​.
• Shock Therapy: A process of rapid marketization​.
• Siloviki: “Men of power” who have their origins in the security agencies and are close to President Putin​.
• Tsar: Russian word for emperor​.
• United Russia: Main political party in Russia and supporter of Vladimir Putin​.
• Yeltsin, Boris: President of Russia from 1991 to 1999​.

Explore the key differences between Russia and China's political systems. Questions cover the Politburo's role, CIS, political parties, constitutional amendments, judiciary, and governance showing the nuances of each country.