The Chinese Party-State
Outline
• Center of the party-state
– Party structure at the center
– Government structure at the center
– National People’s Congress
• Local structure of party-state
– Local people’s congresses
– Local Party & government organs
Communist party-state
• Organizational design of political system
– the difficult task of institutionalization
• Mao Zedong borrowed from
– the Leninist party-state of the Soviet Union
– the imperial system of ancient China
• principles of guardianship and hierarchy
• Mao added the idea of the “mass line”
Common Features
• The political systems of imperial China
and the former Soviet Union
• centralized control
• bureaucratic administration
• the role of ideology
– no room for private, individual interests
– no room for organized opposition to the state
Changes in the System
• Great Leap Forward & Cultural Revolution
• political reforms in the post-Mao era
• substantive issues, policies, and the
allocation of power have changed greatly
• the formal structure of the political system
has endured
Communist party-state
• Guardianship
– the Party represents the historical best
interests of the people
– the “people’s democratic dictatorship” allows
no organized opposition to party leadership
• Hierarchy of party and govt. organizations
– “democratic centralism”
– consultation and implementation
Party Structure
Government Structure
Center
Center
Province
Province
City
City
County/District
County/District
Township
Township
Village
Village
CCP General Secretary
• Hu Jintao (2002 - 2012)
• Xi Jinping (2012 - 2022?)
Politburo Standing Committee
• Each heads party work in one area
– organization and personnel
– propaganda and education
– finance and economy
– political-legal affairs
– foreign affairs
– etc.
CCP Central Committee
• About 200 members (and 150 alternate)
• membership in CC reflects political power
• Central Committee departments:
– Department of Organization
– Department of Propaganda
– Department of United Front
– Department of International Liaison
CCP National Congress
• Meets every 5 years since 1977
– 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007
– 18th National Party Congress
– November 2012
– 2270 delegates
• elects
– Central Committee
PRC Head of State
• President
• Jiang Zemin
– 1993 - 2003
– also the then CCP General Secretary
• Hu Jintao
– 2003 - 2013
– also the then CCP General Secretary
• Xi Jinping (2013 - 2023?)
Central Government
• Premier:
– Li Keqiang (2013 – 2023?)
• State Council
• 25 Ministries and Commissions
– Ministry of Foreign Affairs
– Ministry of National Defense
– Development and Reform Commission
– People’s Bank of China, etc.
Central Military Commission
• Commanders-in-chief of the People’s
Liberation Army
• in both the central Party and government
structures
• same composition
• Chair: Xi Jinping
• 11 members
National People’s Congress
• According to the constitution, the highest
organization of state authority
• NPC Standing Committee
– the permanent body of NPC exercises all but
the most formal powers of the NPC
• 9 Special Committees
– legislative affairs, nationalities, agriculture and
rural, foreign affairs, etc.
National People’s Congress
• NPC plenary sessions
– meet annually in Beijing
– for about 2 weeks
• the nearly 3,000 deputies are elected
– for 5-year terms
– by provincial-level people’s congresses
Power Relationship
CCP Politburo
National PC
State Council
Local People’s Congresses
People’s Congresses
Elected by
National
Provincial PC’s
Province
City PC’s
City
County or district PC’s
County
Eligible voters
Township
Eligible voters
Provincial Level Governments
• 22 Provinces
• 5 Autonomous
Regions
• 4 Municipalities
• 2 Special
Administrative
Regions
5 Autonomous Regions
•
•
•
•
•
Inner Mongolia
Xinjiang Uygur
Guangxi Zhuang
Ningxia Hui
Tibet
Directly Administered Cities
Special Administrative Regions
• Hong Kong (since 1997)
• Macau (since 1999)
Local Governments
• 333 at the rank of prefectures:
– 285 cities at the rank of prefectures
• 2852 at the rank of counties:
– 368 county-level cities
– 1,570 counties
– 860 city districts
• 40446 at the rank of townships/towns
• (over 600,000 at the rank of villages)
Local Party Structure
• 4 million party committees, party general
branches, and party branches
• provinces, cities, counties, townships, and
villages
• enterprises
– state-owned enterprises
– private enterprises
Replicated at lower levels
Local party committee
local people’s congress
local government