Social Control in China: A Study of Chinese Work Units by Victor Shaw

Chapter one offers a general survey of the chinese work unit.

"for individuals it is where they work, live, build a social network, and realize their goals for career develoment and personal success. for hte society it is the basic unit of action. for the Chinese Communist Party in particular it is th efirst and last organizational bastion where policy lines and programs are executed." p. 4

"spiritual control is implemented by work units too. Mao urged the work unit to become the "big school" for people to learn marxism, leninism and mao zedong thought. political study is officially enforced in teh work unit, each of which has propaganda staff and instruments to educate people and keep them informed of basic party policies. Deng's talk after the 1989 Tiananmen Square event was said to have been transmitted to every employee and then every urban resident, in one day, through the work unit network." p. 22

"formal social control involves an external secondary authority enforcing promulgated laws and imposing sanctions through explicit procedures adn complex bureaucracies...it begins with the emergence of slave systems, feudal lords, or city states in civilized history. informal social control in contrast applies spiritual or materialistic incentives to engage individuals in collective actions for goal attainment or dispute settlement outside a court for the return of community order. Based upon primary group relations ti is as old as the human existence. (p.27)

"The Post Mao period has seen the expansion of formal control agencies such as education, laws, the police, courts and prisons. Formalism takes a greater hold. But informalism has not yet lost its ingrained influence. A unified ideology, a strong family, a high degree of community solidarity, and a close link between citizens and authority still function for socialization and crime prevention." p. 31

in discussing the various forms of social control in the chinese work unit the first form of control that is discussed is that of "control through ideology"

"Ideological control is based on the controlleej's trust and teh leaders' capacity to offer a convincing interpretation of reality, an attractive vision of the possible future, and a prescription for how to reach that vision." p. 42

"in china, ideological control is publicly know is spiritual control. coupled with teh Confucian ideal of ruling people by wisdom, spiritual control is a deeply rooted Chinese tradition. Confucian philosophy taught officials and members of the intelligentsia that those who win the people's mind win the earth under heaven. In teh Art of War Senzi stressed attacking the mind as a better strategy than attacking the castle...Mao said that the key to revolutionary success is to propagandize, persuade and educate the masses. In terms of intensity and scope, spiritual control has been reinforced under the CCP reign, becoming a basic feature of common citizens' daily life. To a degree, "freedom of silence" cherished by some old-fashioned Chinese scholars is not even possible for an illiterate peasant in a remote area under the CCP mass propaganda.
Chinese studies in the West have analyzed the role of ideology and spiritual control in Chinese political dynamics. Mass media researchers point out that the CCP utilizes propaganda to spread its policies, build social consensus, and mobilize the population for social programs. Political analysts find that ideological tension results in mass movements and that spiritual control legitimizes political establishments...Legal scholars notice that political studies, legal education, heroic models, adn thought reform provide the CCP with effective weapons to propagandize rules and legal codes, normalize individual behavior, and rehabilitate deviants in labor camps." p. 43

"the core of communist spiritual control is composed of Marxism, Leninism, Mao zedong thought, deng's talks, and party documents...to effecively implement spiritual control, the CCP has in general developed the following strategies. one is to establish an all-inclusive socialist theory for a uniform explanation of everything...excerpts from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Deng, and official documents constitute the cornerstone of this theoretical system. ...still another strategy is to publicize policies through media, bulletins, and street posters, ensuring that all sources utter one voice to the common people...

Chinese work units in the overall spiritual control, serve as relay stations through which the party throughts and policies can reach individuals. Mao called the work unit a school where people learn revolutionary theories and turn them into actions. In official jargon, it is the propaganda front for the party to convey its will and decisions to the masses." (p. 43)

In Figure 4.1 Shaw diagrams the channels for ideological control.

the CCP official ideology is conveyed through the central propaganda department via documents, newspapers, radio and television, to the work unit which then conveys this ideology to all individuals through tv, radio, the various organizations within it, newsletters, weekly political studies, blackboard news, mass meetings, wall news.


"What duties does the work unit's propaganda buildup assume? ...publicizing party policy lines and state rules, informing unit members of current situations (mainly political events), delivering unit news and administrative directives, praising good persons and good events within the unit, establishing models and advancing unit task performances, organizing shows and excursions and entertainmetns that convey communist values and create a sense of collectivity, and managing important unit events such as anniversary celebrations." (p. 48)

"weekly political study has been institutionalized as a standard practice. there is no clearly written rule about it. but according to the interview and my own observation it is well enforced throughout the country. all respondents said their work units have regular political studies. unit employees are called together once a week in teams or groups to study official documents, important editorials, or current political events. the study is customarily scheduled on a thursday or saturday afternoon, lasting two to three hours...attendance for political study is mandatory. Absence without prior request leads to implicit or explicit penalties...many respondents indicated that their work units hold all-employee meetings in divisions or throughout the entire unit after almost every CCP's national congress, for a concentrated study of major party decisions and policy changes...what is teh effect of these various means and activities of propaganda? a number of interviewees said that they are superficial, dogmatic, adn disliked by most unity empolyees. however, all agreed that they are the main sources of information from which they know the party, society and even the world." p. 48-49

Shaw argues that ideological control is more a form of socialization. "the essence of ideological control is to inculcate the desired values, ideals, and worldviews into the minds of the controllees and thereby to keep them in line or have them achieve the goal intended by the controller. ..In the setting of the Chinese work units ideological control exists as an organizational process to shape the actions of unit members for the unit's task performance in particular adn for society's collective goal in general. ...the effect of ideological control is primarily epitomized in mass motivation and policy legitimation. by motivation, people are enthusiastically aroused to self-consciously commit to teh goals and programs of their work units in particular and their society in general. through legitimation, important policy changes are made theoretically justifiable and practically necessary. skepticism is thus cleared, opposition is removed, and the entire population is included with total dedication in the new initiatives.

"Chinese ideological control is unique in that it is based upon communist ideologies and implemented by the political-economic machinery controlled by the communist party. it is inclusive adn intensive, involving all citizens for deep and constant exposure to its content." p. 52

This book is about social control in the early years of opening and reform. my guess is that the work unit has less and less influence in modern day china as privatization soars. all the same, the work unit model persists in the educational sector and an understanding of the structure and organization of Chinese work units can provide insight into the mechanisms through which policy documents exert their ideological influence on teachers and educators.