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September 29, 2023
China Primer: China’s Political System
Introduction
extend down to the level of small towns. At every level, the
The People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) is the only
Party leader outranks the government leader.
Communist Party-led state among the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council or among
Xi Jinping, 70, leads the PRC party-state. He has served
the members of the G-20 grouping of major economies. As
since 2012 as CPC General Secretary and Chairman of the
Congress has intensified its focus on China in the context of
Party’s Central Military Commission, which oversees the
U.S.-China strategic competition, Members have
Party’s armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
increasingly sought to legislate and conduct oversight on
(The PLA formally and explicitly serves the Party, not the
matters that require an understanding of the PRC political
nation.) Xi also has served since 2013 as PRC President, a
system. Select features of that system are introduced below.
head of state position that officially has a minor role in the
operations of the PRC government. Xi began his third five-
The Party-State
year terms in his Party and state posts in 2022 and 2023.
The PRC is both a nation state and a Leninist “party-state.”
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also known as the
The Communist Party of China
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has led China for 74
The Party’s top national-level institution is the Central
years, since 1949, longer than any other communist party in
Committee, led by the General Secretary and including an
history. The Party now has 98 million members, nearly 7%
elite 24-person Political Bureau (Politburo) and an even
of China’s population, all of whom completed a demanding
more elite 7-man Politburo Standing Committee. Several
application and vetting process to join. The political system
Politburo Standing Committee members hold concurrent
also includes a state, or government, tasked with
posts atop other parts of the political system, ensuring Party
administration. Interlocking Party and state hierarchies
control of all political life in China. (Figure 1)
Figure 1. Hierarchies of the Communist Party of China and Its Top Decisionmaking Body, the Party Politburo
Standing Committee (PSB)
PSB members are listed in rank order; several hold concurrent positions in other hierarchies; current as of Sept. 29, 2023
Source: CRS graphic by Mari Lee, based on data from the Communist Party of China’s news portal, http://cpc.people.com.cn/.
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China Primer: China’s Political System
• The Party’s no. 2 official, Li Qiang, serves concurrently
The State Council
as Premier of the State Council, the cabinet of China’s
Central People’s Government, overseeing the
Figure 2. China’s State Council Hierarchy
government bureaucracy. The Party’s no. 6 official,
Current as of September 29, 2023
Ding Xuexiang, serves as his executive Vice Premier.
• The Party’s no. 3 official, Zhao Leji, heads the National
People’s Congress (NPC), China’s unicameral
legislature and China’s counterpart to the U.S.
Congress. China’s people do not directly elect the
NPC’s nearly 3,000 delegates. Rather, delegates to sub-
national bodies, such as provincial-level congresses and
election councils for the PLA, Hong Kong, Macao, and
purportedly for “Taiwan compatriots,” elect NPC
delegates, based on lists drawn up by the Party.
• The Party’s no. 4 official, Wang Huning, heads the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC), a political advisory body that seeks to win
support for the CPC from groups across society,
including minor political parties loyal to the CPC;
organizations such as the Communist Youth League;
and ethnic minority, religious, and professional
communities. The CPC refers to this exercise as
building a “patriotic united front.” Wang also oversees
policy toward Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The CPC Central Committee operates a powerful
bureaucracy, overseen by the Party’s no. 5 official, Cai Qi,
and the Party Secretariat. Under Xi, the Party bureaucracy
has expanded to absorb functions previously managed by
the state, and has embraced a more public role. It includes
five functional departments:
•
The Organization Department, the Party’s personnel
Source: CRS graphic by Mari Lee based on data from
agency, responsible for recruiting and training Party,
http://www.gov.cn.
civil service, and other personnel, and assigning them to
positions across the party-state.
PRC officials often meet with high-level visitors from non-
• The Publicity Department (or Propaganda
communist countries as state officials (i.e., state councilors,
Department), responsible for the Party’s messaging and
ministers, governors, and mayors). Because of the
for control of the media, cultural institutions, and
interlocking nature of the hierarchies, senior state
ideology.
interlocutors are almost always senior Party officials, too,
•
though they may not disclose their Party titles to visitors.
The Commission for Political and Legal Affairs,
As noted, the Premier of the State Council, China’s
responsible for “safeguarding social stability,” oversees
the work of the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme
government cabinet, serves concurrently on the Party’s 7-
People’s Procuratorate, and the Ministries of Public
man Politburo Standing Committee. The four Vice Premiers
are all members of the Party’s 24-person Politburo. The five
Security, State Security, and Justice. The heads of each
State Councilors do not hold Politburo seats, but are
institution serve as commission members.
members of other senior Party bodies and sit on the State
• The United Front Work Department (UFWD),
Council’s own Party committee. (Two of China’s current
which, like the CPPCC, works to coopt and manage
state councilors—Qin Gang and Li Shangfu—have not
relations with diverse social groups. Its responsibilities
made public appearances, in weeks, raising questions about
include work related to Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong,
whether they may have fallen afoul of Party discipline
Macao, Taiwan, and diaspora communities.
investigations, another prominent feature of political life in
• The International Department (also known as the
China under Xi.) The members of the State Council are the
International Liaison Department, or ILD), responsible
ministers of China’s 21 government ministries, the chairs of
for party-to-party relations. It is the lead agency for PRC
three ministerial-level commissions, the governor of the
relations with fellow communist states Cuba, Laos,
central bank, and the head of the National Audit office. All
North Korea, and Vietnam.
but six are full members of the Central Committee, and all
but two also lead their own agencies’ Party committees.
The Party bureaucracy also includes offices for high-profile
commissions, some of which Xi upgraded from “leading
small groups”
Susan V. Lawrence, Specialist in Asian Affairs
that had previously operated in the shadows.
Such offices include the Office of the Commission for
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Foreign Affairs. Its director, Wang Yi, is a member of the
24-person Politburo and serves as China’s top diplomat.
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China Primer: China’s Political System
Disclaimer
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