The People's Party (Xiaodongese: 人民党; Rénmín Dǎng) is a centre-left Xiaodongese political party. Formed in 1988 as a merger of pro-democracy organisations, the People's Party is a big tent socialist party that is defined by it's support for liberal democracy and reformism. It has internal social democratic, conservative and communist factions.
The oldest pro-democracy party in Xiaodong, the People's Party was founded as the Committee for the Co-ordination of Democrats in 1988 as a loose grouping for pro-democracy and centrist candidates for the 1989 election for the Legislative Council. Following the rise of the right-wing populist Millennium Progressive Party of Feng Zhenggao the People's Party became much more definitively left wing, being supported by a coalition of urban progressives and rural socialists under Chen Xianfeng and Li Zhikai
The People's Party would become the largest pro-democracy party within the Legislative Council and regional governments throughout the late 2000's becoming the second largest party after the 2008 election, continuing to hold that place in the 2013 election. The People's Party was the leading force behind the creation of the Democratic Action Alliance, a grouping of pro-democracy parties that participated in the 2013 election that deprived the ruling party of it's supermajority.
The People's Party strongly supported the 2016-17 Xiaodongese Protests which saw the resignation of State Chairman Jiang Zhongyu and the assumption of power of Yuan Xiannian. The People's Party largely denounced the rigging of the 2017 election and were as a result repressed during the Normalisation process that began in it's aftermath. In 2018 all members of the People's Party resigned from their seats in the Legislative Council in protest of the imprisonment of their leader, Hu Wenjuan, the former governor of Yunjin.
The People's Party ideologically are a left-wing party that support the creation of a socialist multiparty democracy based on the principle of respecting universal human rights and spearheading economic and political justice. The party however does retain big-tent tendencies meaning it also includes liberals, conservatives and communists.
History
Origins
The People's Party's origins can be traced to the Xiaodongese Democracy Movement, a loose coalition that arouse in the mid-1980's. From 1934 Xiaodong had been under the single-party rule of the Xiaodong Regeneration Society, which in 1984 under Qian Xingwen launched the Xiandaihua (modernisation) policy which deregulated the Xiaodongese economy. Within the international context of the rapid collapse of communism in Esquarium and the Minjuha reforms in nearby Namor several student societies, trade unions and civic groups started to push for democratic reform within Xiaodong, creating the Democratic Union, a coalition of pro-democracy groups within Xiaodong.
With increasing pressure to reform the political system, Qian announced at the April 1987 Regeneration Society plenum that Xiaodong would amend the constitution to remove Article 8, which guaranteed the Regeneration Society's monopoly on power paving the way for multi-party elections and release thousands of political prisoners. A week after the plenum, dissident writer and human rights activist Chen Xianfeng returned from a 9 year exile in Tuthina to found the Xiaodongese Civic Society to contest in the then upcoming September elections alongside the Democratic Union. In June the Civic Society and the Democratic Union agreed to merge into one party in order to present a united front against the XGD. On the 12th June the Democratic Party was declared with Chen named as its first president, being elected unanimously by party members. The 1988 election was relatively cautious compared to later elections, with the People's Party's manifesto mainly being centred on radical democratisation and constitutional reform. The Regeneration Society's control of state institutions and iron grip on the media however resulted in the Regeneration Society to achieve a supermajority in the election - nevertheless the People's Party gained a reasonable 33 seats, becoming the first opposition party to sit in the State Presidium. Democratic Party leader Chen Xianfeng became the first Xiaodongese Leader of the Official Opposition.
However, there were increasing tensions between Chen and deputy leader Feng Zhengguo. At the time of the 1988 elections the Democratic Party was a catch-all party united only by its commitment to democratic and constitutional reform. Party organisation was highly decentralised with prefectual party branches being the main backbone and policy makers of the party, with the party's National Executive having very little power. During the early 1990's the Democratic Party leadership led by Chen Xianfeng largely encouraged this party model, believing that the Democratic Party should be internally democratic, otherwise it would be "compromising on democracy within Xiaodong". Chen himself was a democratic socialist and sympathised with the left wing of the Democratic Party, but tolerated the right wing of the party and resisted attempts to introduce centralised policy making organs. However Feng, an ex-Regeneration Society member believed in a more centralised leadership and strong national leadership. There was also a personality clash between Chen and Feng, who mistrusted each other.
In 1990, the party caucus held a leadership vote against Chen with the majority of the party's delegates voting for Feng as leader. Chen refused to resign as leader without holding a vote to the party's members, causing Feng and 18 of his supporters to split from the Democratic Party and form the right-wing Progressive Party. The 15 remaining Democratic Party delegates soon changed their party name to the People's Party, with Chen as party president.
Early parliamentary era
Chen Xianfeng, the People's Party founder and president at a byelection campaign in 2003
The
1990 election saw the People's Party lose one of its 15 delegates. Despite intense anger at the government's economic policies the opposition - divided between the Progressive, People's,
Communist and
Liberationist parties - was to fractured to be effective, resulting in the Regeneration Society to achieve another landslide victory. The People's Party failed in their aim to become the largest opposition party, as they had one less seat than the Progressive Party.
In March 1991 the People's Party's membership approved of a party constitution that saw the People's Party position itself as a centre-left party that called for a dynamic market economy as well as support for social justice and liberal democracy, being an early example of a party of the third way. The party also committed to elect its president through regular three year terms by the party membership and picking its candidates through a primary system, making it the most democratic of the Xiaodongese political parties.
Despite his reputation as a committed democrat, Chen was seen as a weak and academically remote leader by a large portion of the Xiaodongese electorate especially compared to the assertive and combative Feng Zhengguo of the Progressive Party. The 1933 election the People's Party performed below expectations, losing 3 seats. Following this Chen announced the aim of the People's Party should be to become the main opposition party by the next election. However, the 1998 general election saw the People's Party gains seats but remain almost 10 seats behind the Progressive Party resulting in Chen to resign as party leader.
Modern period
Following Chen's resignation Ye Jiuguo was elected as party leader, being seen as a young, charismatic leader. An avowed social democrat Ye sought to reform the People's Party internal structure, hoping to create a more solid policy making unit as well as streamline party functions, seeking to transform the People's Party image into one fit for government. His first decision was to propose amendments to the party constitution giving more power to the National Executive whilst also overseeing the creation of the Central Policy Unit, which drafted official party policy. At a party conference in 2001 Ye's amendments were approved by 70% of the party. Ye's charismatic personality, appeals to populism and straightforward manner of speaking proved to be popular with the voters compared to his more academic predecessors.
In the run-up to the 2002 general election the People's Party polled up to 25% of the vote, the highest it had ever polled. As such the 2001 campaign became the most coordinated of the People's Party at that point with the Xiaodong Daily calling it "slick, almost presidential" with Ye being the centre-piece of the campaign. However, the People's Party only saw a modest increase in votes and seats - Ye put himself up for re-election, but was re-elected party leader.
Hu Wenjuan has served as party president since 2014
The
2006 election saw the People's Party lose seats as the Regeneration Society achieved a landslide victory - however, the People's Party's share of the vote remained firm whilst the Progressive Party lost the majority of its seats, resulting in Ye to become leader of the opposition. In the
2009 election the People's Party almost doubled its seats and reaffirmed itself as the largest opposition party. In March 2010 Ye struck a deal with the Progressive and Social Democratic parties to form the
United Democratic Appeal for Xiaodong, a big tent electoral alliance intended to co-ordinate the activities of pro-democracy parties. During the
2011 the People's Party used a social media campaign and targeted key regions in order to win votes, with Ye's personal popularity being a significant boost for the People's Party. Ye's strategy paid off when the People's Party gained the second most amount of seats in the State Presidium at 36. The Regeneration Society lost 19 seats in what was seen as a political miscalculation as the snap election had led to a unified opposition.
In 2014 Ye resigned from the party leadership being replaced by social democrat Hu Wenjuan the first women to become the leader of a major political party in Xiaodong. Being located on the "soft left" of the party under Hu the People's Party has adopted a social democratic and environmentalist agenda. Hu has consistently emphasised that there should responsible capitalism with increased state intervention in the economy, and has continually identified the dang wangluo as the biggest problem in Xiaodongese politics which has resulted in the People's Party to recover its standing in opinion polls. With declining support to Regeneration Society rule the People's Party has subsequently risen in the opinion polls, with Hu being rated as the most popular party leader in Xiaodong.
In the 2016 general election the People's Party got the second most amount of votes of any party, with 7,678,576 people voting for them in single-member districts and 7,302,175 in multi-member districts giving them 60 seats. The UDA as a whole got a plurality of votes but only 89 seats to the Regeneration Society's 100 due to gerrymandering. Nevertheless the election saw the Regeneration Society lose its majority prompting the People's Party to nominate an independent UDA delegate and former lawyer Li Zheng for the position of Chairperson of the State Presidium of Xiaodong. Neither Li nor the Regeneration Society's candidate Yuan Xiannian reached the necessary amount of delegates needed to become State Chairman, leading to a snap election to be held in 2017. The 2017 election saw the the People's Party lose 11 seats and the UDA as a whole 18 whilst the Regeneration Society gained 22 giving it a slim majority, despite polls showing the UDA and Alliance for Democracy having a consistent lead in the polls prior to the election. This alongside reports of massive electoral fraud led many to conclude the election was rigged, resulting in the People's Party to refuse to take its seats in the State Presidium in a policy of abstentionism. The People's Party supported the 2017 protests, and denounced the following crackdown by the government.
As part of Normalisation 24 People's Party delegates including party leader Hu Wenjuan being arrested and two fleeing Xiaodong. Since then the future of the party has been in doubt as senior members of government have called for it to be banned.
Ideology
The People's Party officially styles itself as a socialist party that supports a reformist approach to democratising Xiaodong. At it's founding it was more centrist in character more broadly emphasising liberal democracy, rule of law and civil liberties but attained a more left-wing slant as many more conservative members joined the ruling Concordance Democratic Party in the late 1980's. The People's Party founder, Chen Xianfeng, was a left-wing academic who had studied in Gaullica and was inspired by a mixture of Euclean-style social democracy, Dezevauni socialism and Xiaodongese traditions of communitarianism. Over time the party as the largest pro-democracy party in Xiaodong has attracted various figures who are ideologically not supportive of the liberal socialism of the party's leadership but support the party for it's pro-democracy credentials. Broadly the People's Party advocates for a mixed economy with strong public utilities such as universal healthcare, universal education and a welfare state.
The People's Party has often engaged in populist politics, and often uses nationalist rhetoric. Political scientist Shao Panshi has stated the People's Party is left-wing populist and uses a form of anti-imperialism in its rhetoric.
Economic policies
The People's Party officially supports a socialist economy based around workers' self-management whilst retaining elements of a capitalist economy. The People's Party has often as a result been associated with market socialism on a theoretical level. The People's Party has called for a radical restructuring of the Xiaodongese economy calling for the dismantling of monopolies and predatory state-owned companies and the decentralisation of economic power to workers', with the state stepping in to correct market inefficiencies. The People's Party have generally argued in favour of sustainable development criticising current government policies for failing to consider living standards.
The People's Party is most strongly associated with demanding greater labour rights in Xiaodong, calling for the creation of more independent trade unions and comprehensive laws that improve worker conditions in Xiaodong. They also have called for stronger welfare measures such as the creation of universal healthcare, education and housing schemes.
When the People's Party has operated in provincial governments they have often taken a pragmatic economic approach often sponsoring local development programmes. Party president Hu Wenjuan as governor of Yunjin notably approved the privatisation of various government assets whilst also negotiating better pay and working conditions for factory workers in the province.
Social policies
The People's Party has been associated with moderately progressive social policies, but also has a strong social conservative wing meaning in practice they are centrist on social issues. Generally the People's Party is seen as more liberal than the ruling parties.
Most prominently the People's Party has committed to ensuring women's rights. The People's Party want to require both private and state employers to pay the same wage to women as they are to men for equal work (currently the only state employers are required to do so), and want to lengthen maternity leave as well as liberalise abortion laws. However, the People's Party have been criticised for sometimes exhibiting sexist rhetoric.
The People's Party is opposed to both civil unions or gay marriage. Former party leader Chen Xianfeng stated he was "uncomfortable" with homosexuality but "did not believe in discrimination against those with differing sexual orientation". Current party president Hu Wenjuan affirmed that the People's Party support current laws regarding LGBT+ rights and that it was a "non-issue" in Xiaodongese politics, a stance that has been criticised by LGBT+ advocacy groups.
Constitutional reform
The People's Party support radically reforming Xiaodong's governmental structure. When founded, the People's Party wanted a presidential system with a bicameral National Assembly elected through party-list proportional representation but over time they have amended their positions to support a semi-parliamentary system with mixed-member proportional representation. They support the abolition of the Examination Secretariat for elected officials.
Foreign policy
On foreign policy issues, former party leader Li Zhikai called for Xiaodong to have "a thousand friends and zero enemies". The People's Party has traditionally been supportive of international organisations such as the Community of Nations and has also called for greater cooperation between organisations like the International Forum for Developing States and the Euclean Community and Association for International Socialism.
The People's Party support a form of détente with Senria but have criticised the Treaty of Keishi as being unreasonable and against Xiaodongese interests. People's Party president Hu Wenjuan called Senrian Prime Minister Hayato Nisimura "bad news" and accused him of unnecessarily inciting tensions between Xiaodong and Senria. The People's Party has in recent years been more critical of Senria with former President Ye Jiuguo calling Senria a "third rate country". The party has taken a neutral view regarding Heijiang stating it should decide for itself whether to join Xiaodong, stay independent or join Kuthina.
The People's Party supports multilateral denuclearisation and has criticised Senria for attempting to unilaterally disarm Xiaodong. The People's Party have stated they support a nuclear-free world and that Xiaodong must take concrete steps to denuclearise in order to spur other nations to follow.
Organisation
Factions
The People's Party is known for its numerous factions that are based around both ideological aims and personal loyalty. This is partly as a result of the People's Party being the largest non-Regeneration Society political party in Xiaodong, which means former members of the Regeneration Society who left the organisation for various reasons often join the People's Party to further their careers, as well as being the main locus for those opposed to Regeneration Society rule. As such the People's Party contains numerous factions often of conflicting interests.
- Democratic Reform Committee - Led by Hu Wenjuan, the current leader of the People's Party. It is a moderate left-wing faction that supports democratic socialism and Xiaodongese nationalism, being anti-Senrian and pro-reform. Considered to be on the left wing of the party.
- National Development Group - Led by current Secretary-General Jiang Luanhe. A national conservative faction that supports progressive economics and neo-revisionism. The largest right-wing faction.
- Xiaodongese Council of Progress - Led by former leader Ye Jiuguo. Strongly populist with left-wing and nationalist tendencies, supporting variants of council communism. Considered to be on the left of the party, although shares similarities with the National Development Group.
- Huyuan Council - Led by State Presidium delegate Feng Rouchang. A moderate centre-left group that supports social democracy and a softer policy on Senria. Formerly led by Li Zhikai. Considered to be in the centre of the party.
- Liberal Democratic Committee - Led by the Mayor of Guojiang Li Zhisui. A liberal centrist grouping that supports deregulation, neoliberalism and greater government accountability. Considered to be on the right of the party.
Voter base
President
The President (主席; zhǔ xí) is the leader of the People's Party. The president is elected every four years with Presidents only being allowed to run for two consecutive terms.
| No.
|
Name
(Born–Died)
|
Portrait
|
Term in Office
|
Mandate
|
Notes
|
| 1
|
Chen Xianfeng
陈先锋
(1936-) |
 |
12th June 1990 |
30th June 2002 |
1990
1994 |
Leader of the Opposition 1988-1990
|
| 2
|
Li Zhikai
李志凯
(1952-) |
 |
30th June 1998 |
6th December 2006 |
1998
2002 |
Leader of the Opposition 2006.
|
| 3
|
Ye Jiuguo
葉酒国
(1957-) |
 |
6th December 2006 |
24th May 2010 |
2006 |
Leader of the opposition 2006-2010.
|
| (1)
|
Chen Xianfeng
陈先锋]]
(1936-) |
|
24th May 2010 |
18th May 2010 |
2010 |
Leader of the opposition 2010-2015.
|
| 4
|
Hu Wenjuan
胡温倦
(1965-) |
File:Sim Sangjung and Moon Jaein in 2015 (cropped to Sim).jpg |
18th May 2014 |
Incumbent |
2014 |
Leadership of the Opposition 2014-2017.
|
Electoral results
| Election
|
Leader
|
# of seats won
|
# of Single-member district vote
|
% of Single-member district vote
|
# of Multi-member district vote
|
% of Multi-member district vote
|
Outcome of election
|
| 1988
|
Chen Xianfeng
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
 28 seats; Opposition
|
| 1990
|
Chen Xianfeng
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
 18 seats; Opposition
|
| 1993
|
Chen Xianfeng
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
4 seats; Opposition
|
| 1998
|
Li Zhikai
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
2 seats; Opposition
|
| 2002
|
Li Zhikai
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
2 seats; Opposition
|
| 2006
|
Li Zhikai
|
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
TBA
|
TBA%
|
2 seats; Opposition
|
| 2009
|
Ye Jiuguo
|
|
4,411,176
|
13.75%
|
4,135,277
|
12.89%
|
4 seats; Opposition
|
2011
As part of the DA
|
Chen Xianfeng
|
|
3,788,999
|
12.84%
|
2,397,624
|
11.2%
|
12 seats; Opposition
|
2016
As part of the UDA
|
Hu Wenjuan
|
|
7,678,576
|
20.4%
|
7,302,175
|
19.4%
|
24 seats; Opposition
|
2017
As part of the UDA
|
Hu Wenjuan
|
|
6,323,868
|
17.29%
|
6,162,937
|
15.85%
|
11 seats; Opposition
|
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