Politics of China


In the People's Republic of China, politics functions within a communist state framework based on the system of people's congress under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The National People's Congress functions as the supreme organ of state power and only branch of government per the principle of unified state power. The CCP leads state activities by holding two-thirds of the seats in the NPC, and these party members are responsible for implementing the policies adopted by the CCP Central Committee and National Congress. The NPC has unlimited state power bar the limitations it sets on itself in the state constitution. By controlling the NPC, the CCP has complete state power. China's two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau, are nominally autonomous from this system.
The Chinese political system is considered authoritarian. There are no freely elected national leaders, political opposition is suppressed, all organized religious activity is controlled by the CCP, dissent is not permitted, and civil rights are curtailed. Direct elections occur only at the local level, not the national level, with all candidate nominations controlled by the CCP. The nature of the elections is highly constrained by the CCP's monopoly on power, censorship, and party control over elections. By law, all elections at all levels must adhere to the leadership of the CCP.

Overview

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the government in Beijing officially asserts to be the sole legitimate government of all of China, which it defines as including mainland China and Taiwan. This has been disputed by the Republic of China government since the Kuomintang fled to Taipei in 1949. The ROC has since undergone significant political reforms.
China's population, geographical vastness, and social diversity frustrate attempts to rule from Beijing. Reform and opening up during the 1980s and the devolution of much central government decision making, combined with the strong interest of local CCP officials in enriching themselves, has made it increasingly difficult for the central government to assert its authority.
As a one-party state, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party holds ultimate power and authority over state and government with no term limit. The offices of CCP general secretary and chairman of the CCP Central Military Commission have been held simultaneously by one individual since 1989, granting the individual predominant power over the country. Since 1982, the CCP general secretary has also been the political chief position of China.
The president of China is the state representative, serving as the ceremonial figurehead under the National People's Congress. In March 2018, the NPC removed the term limits for the presidency.
Central government leaders must, in practice, build consensus for new policies among party members, local and regional leaders, influential non-party members, and the population at large. Even as there have been some moves in the direction of democratization as far as the electoral system at least, in that openly contested People's Congress elections are now held at the village and town levels, and that legislatures have shown some assertiveness from time to time, the CCP retains effective control over governmental appointments. This is because the CCP wins by default in most electorates.

Self-description

The Chinese constitution describes the country's system of government as a people's democratic dictatorship. The CCP has also used other terms to officially describe China's system of government including "socialist consultative democracy", and whole-process people's democracy.
According to the CCP theoretical journal Qiushi, "onsultative democracy was created by the CPC and the Chinese people as a form of socialist democracy.... Not only representing a commitment to socialism, it carries forward China's political and cultural traditions. Not only representing a commitment to the organizational principles and leadership mode of democratic centralism, it also affirms the role of the general public in a democracy. Not only representing a commitment to the leadership of the CPC, it also gives play to the role of all political parties and organizations as well as people of all ethnic groups and all sectors of society".
The semi-official journal China Today stated the CCP's view: "Consultative democracy guarantees widespread and effective participation in politics through consultations carried out by political parties, peoples congresses, government departments, CPPCC committees, peoples organizations, communities, and social organizations". On the other hand, according to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices China was the second least electoral democratic country in Asia.

Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party dominates the Chinese political landscape. Constitutionally, the party's supreme body is the Party Congress, which meets every five years. Meetings were irregular before the Cultural Revolution but have been periodic since then. The National Congress elects the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection ; the Central Committee in turn elects bodies such as:
In relative liberalization periods, the influence of people and groups outside the formal party structure has increased, particularly in the economic realm. Nevertheless, in all governmental institutions in the PRC, the party committees at all levels maintain a powerful and pivotal role in the administration. According to scholar Rush Doshi, "he Party sits above the state, runs parallel to the state, and is enmeshed in every level of the state." Central party control is tightest in central government offices and urban economic, industrial, and cultural settings; it is considerably looser over the government and party establishments in rural areas, where a significant percentage of mainland Chinese people live. The CCP's most important responsibility comes in the selection and promotion of personnel. They also see that party and state policy guidance is followed and that non-party members do not create autonomous organizations that could challenge party rule. Significant are the leading small groups which coordinate activities of different agencies. State-owned enterprises, private companies and foreign-owned businesses are also required to have internal CCP committees.

Intra-party factions

Chinese politics have long been defined by the competition between intra-party factions' ability to place key members and allies in positions of power within the CCP and Chinese government.
Under general secretaries Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, the two main factions were thought to be the Tuanpai and the Shanghai Clique. The Tuanpai were thought to be cadres and officials that originated from the Communist Youth League of China, while the Shanghai Clique were thought to be officials that rose to prominence under Jiang Zemin when he was first mayor, and then CCP committee secretary, of Shanghai.
Xi Jinping, who became general secretary in 2012, has significantly centralized power, removing the influence of the old factions and promoting his allies, sometimes called the "Xi Jinping faction". Due to this, the old factions, including the Tuanpai, are considered extinct, especially since the 20th CCP National Congress, in which Xi's allies dominated the new Politburo and the Politburo Standing Committee.

Politburo Standing Committee

Full Politburo members

National People's Congress

Constitutionally, the supreme state authority and legislature of China is the National People's Congress. It meets annually for about two weeks to review and approve major new policy directions, laws, the budget, and major personnel changes. The NPC elects and appoints important state positions such as the president, the vice president, the chairman and other members of the Central Military Commission, the premier and rest of the State Council, the president of the Supreme People's Court, and procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.
The NPC also elects a Standing Committee, its permanent body which meets regularly between NPC sessions. Most national legislation in China is adopted by the NPCSC. Most initiatives are presented to the NPCSC for consideration by the State Council after previous endorsement by the CCP Politburo Standing Committee.
Members of the State Council include the Premier, a variable number of vice premiers, five state councilors, and 29 ministers and heads of State Council commissions. During the 1980s there was an attempt made to separate CCP and state functions, with the former deciding general policy and the latter carrying it out. The attempt was abandoned in the 1990s with the result that the political leadership within the state are also the leaders of the CCP.

Minor parties

No legal political opposition groups exist in China. There are eight minor political parties in the country under the CCP's united front system. They participate in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference but have to support the "leading role" of the CCP for their continued existence, and their leadership is appointed by the United Front Work Department of the CCP. Their original function was to create the impression that the PRC was being ruled by a diverse national front, not a one-party dictatorship. The major role of these parties is to attract and subsequently muzzle niches in society that have political tendencies, such as academia.
Coordination between the eight minor parties and the CCP is done through the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference which meets annually in Beijing in March at about the same time that the National People's Congress meets. In addition, there are banned political parties that are actively suppressed by the government, such as the Maoist Communist Party of China, China Democracy Party and China New Democracy Party, which have their headquarters outside of the mainland China.