The Chinese political system is characterized by a highly centralized and hierarchical party-state dominated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP controls government appointments and policymaking from the national to local levels. While political reforms have changed policies and power allocations over time, the basic structure of CCP control with the party secretary as the highest local authority has endured.

1. The Chinese Party-State

3. 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

4. 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”

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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Village

9. CCP General Secretary
• Hu Jintao (2002 - 2012)
• Xi Jinping (2012 - 2027?)

10. 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.

11. CCP Central Committee
• About 200 members
– plus about 150 alternate members
• membership in CC reflects political power
• Central Committee departments:
– Department of Organization
– Department of Propaganda
– Department of United Front
– Department of International Liaison

12. CCP National Congress
• Meets every 5 years since 1977
– 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, ... 2017
– 20th National Party Congress
– October 2022
– 2296 delegates
• elects
– Central Committee

13. 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?)

14. Central Government
• Premier:
– Li Keqiang (2013 – 2023)
• State Council
• 26 Ministries and Commissions
– Ministry of Foreign Affairs
– Ministry of National Defense
– Development and Reform Commission
– People’s Bank of China, etc.

15. 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
• 7 members

16. 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
• 10 Special Committees
– constitution and laws, nationalities, agriculture
and rural, foreign affairs, etc.

17. 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

19. Power Relationship
CCP Politburo
National PC State Council

20. Local People’s Congresses
Eligible voters
Township
Eligible voters
County
County or district PC’s
City
City PC’s
Province
Provincial PC’s
National
Elected by
People’s
Congresses

21. Provincial Level Governments
• 22 Provinces
• 5 Autonomous
Regions
• 4 Municipalities
• 2 Special
Administrative
Regions

22. 5 Autonomous Regions
• Inner Mongolia (population 24 million)
• Xinjiang Uygur (pop. 26 million)
• Guangxi Zhuang
– 50 million
• Ningxia Hui
– 7 million
• Tibet
– 3.6 million

23. Directly Administered Cities

24. Special Administrative Regions
• Hong Kong (since 1997)
• Macau (since 1999)

25. Local Governments
• 333 at the rank of prefectures (310 in 1978)
– 293 prefecture-level cities (98 in 1978)
• 2843 at the rank of counties (2653 in 1978)
– 394 county-level cities (92 in 1978)
– 1,418 counties (2,076 in 1978)
– 977 city districts (408 in 1978)
• 39,945 at the rank of townships/towns
• (over 600,000 at the rank of villages)

26. 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

27. Replicated at lower levels
Local party committee
local people’s congress local government