It has always been difficult to understand the basis of politics in th

Argument: It has always been difficult to understand the basis of politics in the People’s Republic of China. Because the system is effectively closed, it is impossible to know with any degree of confidence who is allied with whom and for what reasons. Yet Chinese politics does exhibit many of the external characteristics of factional political systems, as found in more open societies. It is legitimate to conclude, therefore, that China has a factional political system.

Meaning: The People's Republic of China is a closed economy and hence it is difficult to comprehend much of what goes on within its politics. However, there is a lot of similarities in the characteristics of factional political systems and the People's Republic of China. Keeping this similarity in mind we come to conclude that China has a factional political system.

Question Stem: Strengthen


Irrelevant. We are concerned with a closed economy and a factional one. Information about an open economy is not going to help us in any way.


Factional Political System - Set A
Closed economy - Set B

To say that China (Set B) is a factional political system (Set A) we need to ensure that set A is a superset i.e. all closed economies, including China, will come under factional system. However, if we make Set B a superset i.e all factional systems are closed systems then China may or may not be a part of factional political system (Set A)


Correct. As discussed in (B) only if ALL closed systems are factional then by default, China, which is a closed economy, WILL HAVE TO be a factional system


Irrelevant (to an extent weakens the argument). As mentioned, we are interested in a closed economy and not about an open. Talking about the extent of China being an open economy, too, is irrelevant. Moreover, the argument talks about similarities between People's Republic of China and Factional political system. This choice states a dissimilarity hence it works against what we need.


Irrelevant comparison. Knowing whether China's system is more closed than all factional systems is not going to help us prove that China's system IS a factional system. This choice too goes to state a dissimilarity by stating that China is more close than factional i.e. Though factional system and China system are close, China is more close. This choice, like (D), works against what we need to find.

Correct Choice: (C)