CHINESE POLITICAL SYSTEM

China makes no pretense to be - or to want to be - a democracy in the

Western style unlike the other countries whose political systems are
described on this web site. However, I thought it appropriate to offer a guide
to the Chinese political system because the country is the largest in the
world by population and it is a nation of growing economic and political
importance in global affairs, so we would all do well to have some
appreciation of how the country is run. However, it is a political system
probably rivalled in its opacity only by the government of North Korea.
Since the end of the civil war in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC)
has ruled the country and operates a pyramid of power which reaches down
to every village and every workplace. The Party's 85-million membership
makes it the biggest political party in the world.
As with the former Communist-controlled USSR and its satellite states, China
pretends to be a multi-party state by technically permitting a limited number
of other political parties. The eight registered minor parties have existed
since before 1950. These parties all formally accept the leadership of the
CPC and their activities are directed by the United Front Work Department of
the CPC.
THE CONSTITUTION
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is a changing document.
The first Constitution was declared in 1954. After two intervening versions
enacted in 1975 and 1978, the current Constitution was declared in 1982.
There were significant differences between each of these versions, and the
1982 Constitution has subsequently been amended no less than four times
(1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004). In addition, changing Constitutional
conventions have led to significant changes in the structure of Chinese
government in the absence of changes in the actual text of the Constitution.
There is no special organization tasked with the enforcement of the Chinese
Constitution. Furthermore, under the legal system of the People's Republic of
China, courts do not have the general power of judicial review and cannot
invalidate a statute on the grounds that it violates the Constitution.
THE POLITIBURO
Every significant decision affecting China is first discussed and approved by a
handful of men who sit on the party's Political Bureau or Politburo which is

the nexus of all power in this nation of 1.3 billion. The 25-member Politburo
is elected by the party's Central Committee. New Politburo members are
chosen only after rigorous discussion and investigation of their backgrounds,
experience and views. To reach the top, people need a strong record of
achievement working for the party, to have the right patrons, to have
dodged controversy, and to have avoided making powerful enemies.
The full politburo tends to include party secretaries from big municipalities
like Beijing and Shanghai and from important provinces like Guangdong.
Recently, the wealth generated by China's economic reforms has led some
analysts to suggest the power of the centre is waning. It is pointed out that
party secretaries of large provinces like Sichuan and Guangdong are in
charge of populations bigger than most European countries and that their
tax revenues are vital to Beijing.
Formally, the power of Politburo members stems from their positions in the
decison-making body. But in China, personal relations count much more than
job titles. A leader's influence rests on the loyalties he or she builds with
superiors and proteges, often over decades. That was how Deng Xiaoping
remained paramount leader long after resigning all official posts and it
explains why party elders sometimes play a key role in big decisions.
China's most senior decision-making body is the seven-member Standing
Committee of the Politburo which works as a kind of inner cabinet and
groups together the country's most influential leaders. How the Standing
Committee operates is secret and unclear, but its meetings are thought to be
regular and frequent, often characterised by blunt speaking and
disagreement. Although policy disagreements and factional fighting are
widely believed to take place in private, it is extremely rare for these to
break into the public domain.
Members of the Standing Committee also share out the posts of party
General Secretary, premier, chairman of the National People's Congress, and
head of the Discipline Inspection Commission.
The Politburo controls three other important bodies and ensures the party
line is upheld through these bodies. These are:

the National People's Congress or parliament

the State Council, the government's administrative arm

the Military Affairs Commission which controls the armed forces

The President of China is the head of state. He is currently Xi Jinping who

was apppointed at the end of 2012 and is expected to serve for 10 years. He
is widely regarded as having acquired more power than any other leader
possibly since Mao Zedong. He has abandoned the Communist Party's once
hallowed tradition of 'collective leadership' in favour of strongman rule by
himself.
The Premier of China is the head of the government and leads the State
Council. He is currently Li Keqiang who was appponted at the end of 2012
and is expected to serve for 10 years.
Although a relatively recent innovation, introduced in 1997, enforcement of
age and term limits for top Party and State positions has brought a degree of
predictability into otherwise opaque Chinese elite politics. So now, for all
senior officials, there is an official retirement age of 65 and a limit of two
five-year terms in the same post.
Age limits mean that five of the seven members of the current Politburo
Standing Committee are expected to serve only one five-year term and then
step down in 2017; only President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang are
young enough to serve a second term, although in 2017 the next President
is likely to be selected to take over in 2022. By virtue of their age, the two
youngest members of the newly appointed 25-member Politburo have
emerged as possible future national leaders in waiting. They are Hu
Chunhua, the Party Secretary of Guangdong Province, and Sun Zhengcai,
the Party Secretary of provincial-level Chongqing Municipality.
Finally, it should be noted that senior leaders sometimes retain great
influence over decisions and appointments long after they officially step
down from power. Part of the reason the elders wield such influence is
because of the patron-protege nature of Chinese politics.
THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS
Under China's 1982 constitution, the most powerful organ of state is meant
to be the National People's Congress (NPC), China's unicameral legislature.
However, the reality is that this is little more than a rubber stamp for party
decisions.
The Congress is made up of 2,270 delegates elected by China's provinces,
autonomous regions, municipalities and the armed forces. Delegates hold
office for five years. The full Congress is convened for one session in March
of each year and lasts a mere two weeks. This means that China has the
largest legislature in the world which meets for the least time in the world.

In theory, the Congress has the powers to change the constitution and make
laws. But it is not, and is not meant to be, an independent body in the
Western sense of a parliament. For a start, about 70% of its delegates - and
almost all its senior figures - are also party members. Their loyalty is to the
party first, the NPC second.
What actually tends to happen, therefore, is that the party drafts most new
legislation and passes it to the NPC for "consideration", better described as
speedy approval.
The NPC has shown some signs of growing independence over the past
decade. For instance, in a notable incident in 1999, it delayed passing a law
bringing in an unpopular fuel tax. It has also been given greater leeway
drafting laws in areas like human rights.
The main function of the Congress is to "elect" a Central Committee of
(currently) 205 full members and 171 lower-ranking or "alternate"
members", though in fact almost all of these people are approved in
advance. Real influence lies within this Central Committee which meets
every couple of months.
The formal position is that Congress also "elects" the country's highest
leaders, including the State President and Vice-President, the Chairman of
the government's own Military Affairs Commission, and the President of the
Supreme People's Court.
THE STATE COUNCIL
The State Council is the cabinet which oversees China's vast government
machine. It sits at the top of a complex bureaucracy of commissions and
ministries and is responsible for making sure party policy is implemented
from the national to the local level.
In theory, the State Council answers to the National People's Congress, but
more often the State Council submits legislation and measures which the
NPC then approves.
The State Council's most important roles are to draft and manage the
national economic plan and the state budget, giving it decision-making
powers over almost every aspect of people's lives. It is also responsible for
law and order.
The full council meets once a month, but the more influential Standing
Committee comes together more often, sometimes twice a week. This

committee is made up of the country's premier, four vice-premiers, state

councillors and the secretary-general.
THE MILITARY AFFAIRS COMMISSION
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) - currently 2.25 million strong - has
always defended the party as much as national borders. During the early
years of communist rule, most of the country's leaders owed their positions
to their military success during the civil war, and links between them and the
PLA remained very close. However, as this generation has died off and
reforms have been introduced to make the armed forces more professional,
the relationship has shifted subtly.
Party leaders know they are lost without the army's support, as became
clear during crises like the 1989 Tiananmen protests. At the same time,
senior military leaders realise they need the leadership's backing if farreaching plans to modernise the armed forces are to be paid for.
The party's control over the armed forces and their nuclear arsenal is
institutionalised through the Central Military Affairs Commission. Currently
the 11-member Commission has a civilian chairman (the President Xi
Jinping), two uniformed vice chairmen, and eight uniformed regular
members. The eight are the Minister of Defence, the directors of the
PLAs four headquarters departments, and the commanders of the Navy,
Air Force, and strategic missile forces, known as the Second Artillery Corps.
This Commission has the final say on all decisions relating to the PLA,
including senior appointments, troop deployments and arms spending.
PLA officers are also party members and there is a separate party machine
inside the military to make sure rank and file stay in line with party thinking.
The Military Affairs Commission also controls the paramilitary People's Armed
Police (1.5 million strong), which has the politically sensitive role of guarding
key government buildings, including the main leadership compound of
Zhongnanhai in Beijing.
THE DISCIPLINE INSPECTION COMMISSION
Party members suspected of corruption, bad management or breaking with
the party line are liable to be brought before the Discipline Inspection
Commission, set up to deal with internal party discipline and to monitor
abuses. Indeed, as economic reforms have gathered pace, corruption has
become probably the single most damaging issue for the party's standing.

President has launched an assault on inefficiency and corruption. The targets

of the anti-corruption campaign have included the former head of security
Zhou Yongkang, the country's highest-ranking official to be prosecuted in
more than three decades, and Ling Jihua, a top aide to the former president
Hu Jintao. Of course, such actions, as well as combating corruption, serve to
eliminate opponents and consolidate power.
THE COURTS
Unlike in democratic countries, the China's court system is in no sense
independent. Both main legal organs answer to the National People's
Congress.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest legal supervisory body,
charged with safeguarding the constitution, laws and people's rights.
The Supreme People's Court sits at the top of a pyramid of people's courts
going down to the local level. Public security organs are in charge of the
investigation, detention and preparatory examination of criminal cases.
THE PROVINCES
China is governed as 22 provinces, five "autonomous" regions, four
municipalities - considered so important they are under central government
control (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing) - and two special
administrative regions. The people in charge of these bodies - a group of
about 7,000 senior party and government leaders - are all appointed by the
party's organisation department.
Although many are powerful individuals - the governor of Sichuan province
rules over 80 million people - their ability to deviate from the party line is
limited because they know their next career move would be at stake.
Nevertheless, most analysts agree the centre has lost some control to the
regions in the past two decades, especially in the economic field.
CONCLUSION
The Chinese Communist Party is almost schizophrenic in its economic
policies. On the one hand, China is still a communist society but, on the
other hand, its economy is more capitalist than most European countries.
This contradiction is blurred by language with the use of vague phrases like
"socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "the socialist market economy".
The word 'capitalist' is rarely used; instead policymakers talk of "economic
development" and "commercial business".

On one of my three trips to China, I was told by one person with an eye on
the recent history of Russia's economy: "Socialism has not saved China;
China has saved socialism".
Meanwhile politics is almost invisible in China. Although the country is still
controlled by the Communist Party, there is none of the overt sloganising
that one sees in communist countries like Vietnam or Cuba (both of which I
have also visited). Real politics takes place behind closed doors in the organs
of the Communist Party, not on the streets or in the media.
Most citizens - even educated ones - have no interest in politics generally or
democracy in particular. Instead there seems to be an unwritten and
unannounced compact between the Party and the people: 'You leave us to
run the country and we'll leave you to make as much money as you can'.
It remains to be seen whether this massive disconnect between economics
and politics - the former liberal, the latter totalitarian - can survive and, if
not, whether the changes are smooth or disruptive.
But fundamental change is unlikely under the current leadership. Early in
2014, President Xi Jinping said in a speech at the College of Europe in the
Belgian city of Bruges: "Constitutional monarchy, imperial restoration,
parliamentarism, a multi-party system and a presidential system, we
considered them, tried them, but none worked."