The Chinese PartyState

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The Chinese Party-State
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Outline

• Center of the party-state
• Party structure at the center
• Government structure at the center
• National Peoples Congress
• Local structure of party-state
• Local peoples congresses
• Local Party government organs

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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

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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

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Changes in the System

• Great Leap Forward (1958 - 1961)
• Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976)
• 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

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Communist party-state

• Guardianship
• the Party represents the historical best
  interests of the people
• the peoples 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
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CCP General Secretary

• Jiang Zemin (1989 - 2002)
• Hu Jintao (2002 - )

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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.

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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

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CCP National Congress

• Meets every 5 years since 1977
• 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002
• 16th National Party Congress
• November 2002
• 2154 delegates
• elects
• Central Committee

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PRC Head of State

• President
• Jiang Zemin
• 1993 - 2003
• also the then CCP General Secretary
• Hu Jintao
• 2003 - 2008
• also the current CCP General Secretary

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Central Government

• Premier Wen Jiabao (2003-2008)
• State Council
• 29 Ministries and Commissions
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of National Defense
• Development and Reform Commission
• Peoples Bank of China, etc.

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Central Military Commission

• Commanders-in-chief of the Peoples Liberation
  Army
• in both the central Party and government
  structures
• same composition
• Chair Hu Jintao
• 11 members

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National Peoples 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
• 8 Special Committees
• legislative affairs, nationalities, agriculture
  and rural, foreign affairs, etc.

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National Peoples 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 peoples congresses

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Power Relationship

• CCP Politburo
• National PC State Council

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Local Peoples Congresses
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Provincial Level Governments

• 22 Provinces
• 5 Autonomous
• Regions
• 4 Municipalities
• 2 Special
• Administrative
• Regions

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5 Autonomous Regions

• Inner Mongolia
• Xinjiang Uygur
• Guangxi Zhuang
• Ningxia Hui
• Tibet

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Directly Administered Cities
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Special Administrative Regions

• Hong Kong (since 1997)
• Macau

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Local Governments

• Cities
• 4 cities at the rank of provinces
• 15 cities at the rank of semi-provinces
• 283 cities at the rank of prefectures
• 374 cities at the rank of counties
• 1,636 counties and 852 city districts
• 35,484 townships (and 900,000 villages)

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Local Party Structure

• 3.5 million party committees, party general
  branches, and party branches
• provinces, cities, counties, townships, and
  villages
• enterprises
• state-owned enterprises
• private enterprises

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Replicated at lower levels

• Local party committee
• local peoples congress local government