¹ Only six pre-Cultural Revolution provincial first party secretaries retained any official leadership position immediately after its start. Two remained as the ranking cadre in the same province. Two moved to other provinces as leading cadres. One was transferred to another province as the ranking cadre; and one was demoted in the same province.

² For example, Donnithorne, Audrey, ‘Central Economic Control’ in Adams, R., ed., Contemporary China (London: Peter Owen, 1968), p. 151Google Scholar; and Chang, Parris H., ‘Research Notes on the Changing Loci of Decision in the CCP’, The China Quarterly (1970), No. 44, 169–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ For example, Moody, Peter R. Jr., ‘Policy and Power: The Career of T'ao Chu, 1956–66’, The China Quarterly (1973), No. 54, 267–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ For example, Falkenheim, V., ‘Provincial Leadership in Fukien’, in Scalapino, R. A., ed., Elites in the People's Republic of China (Seattle: Washington University Press, 1972), 199–244.Google Scholar

⁵ In particular, Teiwes, F., Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66 (New York: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1967)Google Scholar which, although it comes nearest to requirements with several sections treating provincial first party secretaries as a separate category, is limited in both period and data, having been written before the Cultural Revolution.

⁶ ‘National minority’ is the term used to refer to the 6 per cent of the population of the PRC who are classified as being non-Han.

⁷ Purely as a matter of convenience the cut-off date for this study is 1 April 1978.

⁸ For details see, Shabad, Theodore, China's Changing Map, 2nd ed. (New York: Praeger, 1972), p. 24 ff.Google Scholar

⁹ For an excellent account of this period from a regional perspective see Solinger, Dorothy J., Regional Government and Political Integration in Southwest China, 1949–1954 (Berkeley: University of California, 1977).Google Scholar

¹⁰ On the significance of this problem see J. Whitney, B. R., China: Area, Administration and Nation Building (University of Chicago, Department of Geography, research paper, no. 123, 1970), especially p. 42 ff.Google Scholar

¹¹ For details see Lardy, N., Economic Growth and Distribution in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Chap. 3, ‘The 1958 Decentralization’, p. 90 ff.Google Scholar

¹² For a discussion of the political context of these changes see Schurmann, Franz, Ideology and Organization in Communist China, 2nd edn. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 195 ff.Google Scholar

¹³ Domes, Jürgen, ‘The Role of the Military in the Formation of Revolutionary Committees, 1967–68’, The China Quarterly (1970), No. 44, 112–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Klein, Donald W. and Hager, Lois B., ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, The China Quarterly (1971), No. 45, 37–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵ Goodman, David S. G., ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’, in Domes, J., ed., Chinese Politics after Mao (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1979).Google Scholar

¹⁶ The two differences between the regions as they existed in 1949–54 and 1961–67 were that Kiangsi was in the Central-South region in the earlier period and in the East China region in the latter; and Tibet was brought into the Southwest region during the 19605.

¹⁷ For a partial assessment of these bureaux see Solinger, Dorothy J., ‘Some Speculations on the Return of the Regions; Parallels with the Past’, The China Quarterly (1978), No. 75, 623–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁸ The use of the personal pronoun is deliberate. As will become clear later no woman has ever been a provincial first party secretary.

¹⁹ For details see Chang, Parris, ‘Research Note on the Changing Loci of Decision in the CCP’, and Lieberthal, Kenneth, A Research Guide to Central Parly and Government Meetings in China, 1949–75 (White Plains, N.Y.: International Arts and Science Press, 1976).Google Scholar

²⁰ Lu-yen, Liao, ‘Kuan-yu 1956–67 ch'uan-kuo nung-ye fa-chan kang-yao di shuo-ming’, Cheng-chih hsueh-hsi, No. 2 (1956), p. 12.Google Scholar

²¹ Teng was in fact rehabilitated for the second time in July 1977 shortly before the Eleventh Party Congress. He had been removed from office for the second time officially in April 1976 after the Tien An Men incident.

²² Teiwes, F., ‘Provincial Politics in China’, in Lindbeck, J. M. H., ed., China: Management of a Revolutionary Society (London: Allen and Unwin, 1971), p. 116.Google Scholar

²³ The main sources for biographical information that have been consulted include: Who's Who in Communist China, Vol. I and II (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1969 and 1970)Google Scholar; Hierarchies of the People's Republic of China (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1975)Google Scholar; Klein, D. W. and Clark, A. B., Biographic Dictionary of Chinese Communism, 1921–1965 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 1971)Google Scholar; Union Research Biographical Series (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute); Chen-hsia, Huang, Chung-kung chün-jen chih (Mao's Generals) (Hong Kong, Tang-tai-li-shih yea-chiu so, 1968)Google Scholar; Chinese Communist Who's Who (Taipei; Institute of International Relations), 1969 and 1970; and Hsien-tai chung-kuo jen-ming tse-tien (Tokyo, 1966).Google Scholar I would like to thank Prof. Jürgen Domes of the University of Saarland for his help in providing additional biographical information relating to the period before 1949.

²⁴ Translated in the BBC's Summary of World Broadcasts, Part III, ‘The Far East’.

²⁵ Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 37Google Scholar; Domes, Jürgen, China after the Cultural Revolution (London: Hurst, 1976), Chapt. 12, p. 184 ff.Google Scholar; Pye, Lucian W., ‘Generational Politics in the Gerontocracy: the Chinese Succession Problem’, in Current Scene, XIV (1976), No. 7, 1–8.Google Scholar

²⁶ The seminal characterization of the ‘revolutionary generation’ is Klein, Donald W., ‘The “Next Generation” of Chinese Communist Leaders’, The China Quarterly (1962), No. 12, 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁷ The traditional division between north and south is the Yangtze. Approximately 53·7 per cent of the Chinese population are ‘southerners’. Throughout this study all population figures are based on ‘Provincial population figures’ in Current Scene, XIV (1976), No. 11, pp. 16–19.Google Scholar

²⁸ Based on Goodman, , ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’Google Scholar, which has emphasized the continued hold on power of the revolutionary generation after Mao's death.

²⁹ For an example of these differing interpretations, see Chang, Parris, ‘Decentralization of Power’, p. 67Google Scholar, and Falkenheim, Victor, ‘Continuing Central Predominance’, p. 75Google Scholar, both in Problems of Communism, XXI (1972), No. 4, 67–75, 75–83.Google Scholar

³⁰ Donnithorne, , ‘Central Economic Control’, p. 169.Google Scholar

³¹ Lewis, John Wilson, Leadership in Communist China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963), p. 134.Google Scholar

³² Barnett, A. Doak, Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China (New York: Columbia, 1967), p. 433.Google Scholar

³³ Generally, see Barnett, , Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China, pp. 132–3.Google Scholar On provincial leadership specifically see Teiwes, F., Provincial Leadership in China: The Cultural Revolution and its Aftermath (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Papers, No. 4, 1974), pp. 64–72.Google Scholar

³⁴ Schurmann, , Ideology and Organization in Communist China, pp. 215–16.Google Scholar

³⁵ Teiwes, F., Provincial Parly Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–1966 (New York: East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 1968)Google Scholar, and Provincial Leadership in China: The Cultural Revolution and its Aftermath (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

³⁶ Predominant career background before achieving first secretary status has been defined according to each cadre's position(s) for the majority of the fifteen years before appointment. Any cadre serving before 1957 has been regarded as having a predominant career background before 1949 and does not fall into the category of cadres having a predominant career background between 1949 and attaining first secretary status. See Table 5 on p. 57.

³⁷ The 141 individuals held 179 tours of duty as follows: 112 had I tour of duty as first secretary; 22 had 2 tours of duty as first secretary; 5 had 3 tours of duty as first secretary; 2 had 4 tours of duty as first secretary.

³⁸ For comparative data on the national leadership see Domes, , China after the Cultural Revolution, Chap. 12.Google Scholar

³⁹ Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 44.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Klein, , ‘The “Next Generation” of Chinese Communist Leaders’, pp. 72–3.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Throughout this analysis the term ‘region’ refers to the party regions as they existed in the early 1950s and early 1960s unless otherwise qualified.

⁴² See T'ung-tsu, Ch'u, Local Government in China under the Ch'ing (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard East Asian Studies, No. 9, 1962)Google Scholar, especially Chap. I.

⁴³ Solinger, , Regional Government and Political Integration in Southwest China, 1949–54, Chap. V.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See, for example, the speech by Hua, Chiang, First Secretary of Chekiang province, in Jen-min shou-ts'e (Peking, 1958), pp. 68–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Schurmann, . Ideology and Organization in Communist China, p. 215.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, p. 72.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Teiwes, , Provincial Parly Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, p. 17.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Approximately 30 per cent of all first secretaries were native to their province of appointment during 1956–66, but only 5 per cent were during the GPCR.

⁴⁹ See confirmation by Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, p. 65Google Scholar, Table 13 and p. 107, Table 21, even though he has operationalized a different definition of ‘region’, based on party region and/or neighbouring provinces, and consequently has higher figures.

⁵⁰ For practical reasons this has been defined as either date of joining the CCP or, in the few cases where the precise date is unknown, first identification in the CCP.

⁵¹ Frank, Peter, ‘The CPSU obkom first secretary: a profile’, British Journal of Political Science, 1 (1971), 173–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵² Donaldson, Robert H. and Waller, Derek J., ‘A Comparison of the Current Chinese and Soviet Central Committees’, Studies in Comparative Communism, Vol. VI, Nos. 1 and 2, 51–65.Google Scholar

⁵³ For comparative data on the Central Committee see Goodman, , ‘Changes in Leadership Personnel after September 1976’.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ In all cases, analysis has been based on a cadre's first identification in a province after 1949.

⁵⁵ On the organization of the PLA and its relationship to the CCP see Nelsen, Harvey, The Chinese Military System (London: Thornton Cox, 1977).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ For the regions as they existed in the early 19605, see Fig. 1.

⁵⁷ Schurmann, , Ideology and Organization in Communist China, p. 216.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Donnithorne, , ‘Central Economic Control’, p. 177.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ In Table 9 only those positions which could be filled throughout 1949–78 are recorded.

⁶⁰ Teiwes, , Provincial Leadership in China, pp. 42–3Google Scholar; Klein, and Hager, , ‘The Ninth Central Committee’, p. 47.Google Scholar

⁶¹ See Teiwes, Frederick C., ‘The Purge of Provincial Leaders 1957–1958’, The China Quarterly (1966), No. 27, 14–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶² Barnett, , Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China, p. 433.Google Scholar

⁶³ Teiwes, , Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Schurmann, , ideology and Organization in Communist China, pp. 215 and 218.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Teiwes, , Provincial Party Personnel in Mainland China, 1956–66, p. 5.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ In the 1970s, Ninghsia's borders were enlarged so that it became a direct border area.

⁶⁷ On Hua Kuo-feng's career before 1966, see Oksenberg, Michel and Yeung, Sai-cheung, ‘Hua Kuo-feng's Pre-Cultural Revolution Hunan Years, 1949–66: The Making of a Political Generalist’, The China Quarterly (1977), No. 69, 3–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar