Reflections | China’s political system wasn’t always highly centralised – once it was almost a federal nation like the United States
- Federation as a political concept has been alien to the Chinese psyche for over 2,000 years, when during the Zhou dynasty a federal-like system was in place
- The Zhou kings left feudal lords alone to run their territories as they saw fit, but the system gradually broke down as the lords grew in power
A constitutional storm in a teacup brewed in Malaysia in June when the ruler of the state of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail, articulated a litany of complaints against the federal government, and warned that the people of his state might decide to secede from Malaysia if the central government continued to treat Johor like a “stepchild”.
Johor is one of the country’s 13 states and three federal territories. The modern nation of Malaysia was established 59 years ago as a federation of the territories of Malaya (i.e. the 11 states in the Malay Peninsula), British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore. Singapore was famously ejected two years later from Malaysia in 1965.
Unlike unitary states such as Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines, where their central governments exercise supreme authority over the entire country, nations like the United States, Australia and Malaysia are organised as federations, with constituent states electing their own state governments and enjoying varying degrees of autonomy.
For most part of its history, China has been a highly centralised unitary state where its central government – be it imperial, republican or socialist – wields extensive powers over the provinces and other local administrative units. The authority of all local government officials, even the “autonomous” ones past and present, is derived from their appointment or recognition by the central government.
This high degree of centralisation was established in 221BC with the founding of the Qin dynasty, when the Chinese nation was reorganised as an empire with the emperor at the apex of the political order, in whose name all officials were appointed and all policies implemented.
All local administrative units of the empire were directly controlled by and answerable to the central government. Even during periods when China was fragmented into mutually hostile states and warlord regimes, each of these polities was a centralised unitary state in and of itself.