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The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
under the exclusive political leadership of the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
(CCP). It consists of
legislative A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government. Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...
,
executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...
, military, supervisory,
judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
, and procuratorial branches. The constitutional head of government is premier, while the ''de facto'' top leader of government is General Secretary of the Communist Party. The
National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...
(NPC) is the highest state organ, with control over the
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
and basic laws, as well as over the election and supervision of officials of other government organs. The congress meets annually for about two weeks in March to review and approve major new policy directions, laws, the budget, and major personnel changes. The NPC's
Standing Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
(NPCSC) is the permanent legislative organ that adopts most national legislation, interprets the constitution and laws, and conducts
constitutional review Constitutional review, or constitutionality review or constitutional control, is the evaluation, in some countries, of the constitutionality of the laws. It is supposed to be a system of preventing violation of the rights granted by the constitution ...
s. The
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
acts as a
head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
in compliance with decisions made by the NPCSC, but exercises an independent power to nominate the Premier. Elected separately by the NPC, the
Vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
has no power themselves, but assists the President. The State Council, also referred to as the Central People's Government, is China's executive organ headed by the Premier of China. Besides the Premier, the State Council has a variable number of Vice Premiers, five State Councilors (protocol equal of vice premiers but with narrower portfolios), the
Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
, and 26 ministers and other cabinet-level department heads. It consists of ministries and agencies with specific portfolios. The State Council presents most initiatives to the NPCSC for consideration after previous endorsement by the CCP's
Politburo Standing Committee The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...
, which is headed by the CCP General Secretary. The NPC generally approves State Council policy, although will occasionally force revisions in proposed laws. China's judicial organs perform prosecutorial and court functions. China's courts are supervised by the
Supreme People's Court The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of nation ...
(SPC), which is headed by the Chief Justice. The
Supreme People's Procuratorate The Supreme People's Procuratorate () is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was r ...
(SPP) is responsible for prosecutions and supervises procuracies at the provincial, prefecture, and county levels. At the same administrative ranking as the SPC and SPP, the
National Supervisory Commission National Supervisory Commission of the People's Republic of China is the highest anti-corruption agency of the People's Republic of China, at the same administrative ranking as Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. Its oper ...
(NSC) was established in 2018 to investigate corruption within the CCP and state organs. During the 1980s there was an attempt made to separate party 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. This dual structure thereby creates a single
centralized government A centralized government (also united government) is one in which both executive and legislative power is concentrated centrally at the higher level as opposed to it being more distributed at various lower level governments. In a national contex ...
. At the same time there has been a move to separate party and state offices at levels other than the central government, as it is not unheard of for a sub-national executive to also be party secretary. This frequently causes conflict between the
chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
and the party secretary, and such is widely seen as intentional to prevent either from becoming too powerful. Some special cases include: the
Special Administrative Regions The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...
of
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
, where, according to constitution and respective basic law, most national laws do not apply; and the autonomous regions, where, following Soviet practice, the chief executive is typically a member of the local ethnic group while the CCP General Secretary is non-local and historically always
Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
.


Constitution

The Chinese Constitution was first created on 20 September 1954, before which an interim constitution-like document created by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was in force. The second promulgation in 1975 shortened the Constitution to just about 30 articles, containing Communist slogans and revolutionary language throughout. The role of courts was slashed, and the Presidency was gone. The 3rd promulgation in 1978 expanded the number of articles, but was still under the influence of the very-recent
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
. The current constitution is the PRC's fourth promulgation, declared on 4 December 1982, and has served as a stable constitution for 30 years. Under the constitution, the roles of the presidency and the courts were normalized, and all citizens were declared equal. Amendments in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004, and 2018 recognized private property, safeguarded
human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
, and further promoted the non-public sector of the economy. The legal power of the CCP is guaranteed by the PRC Constitution and its position as the supreme political authority in the People's Republic of China is realised through its comprehensive control of the state, military, and media.


National People's Congress

image:The 1st Session of the 12th National People's Congress open 20130305.jpg, 270px, The 12th
National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...
held in 2013 The National People's Congress (NPC) is the national legislature of the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. With 2,924 members in 2017, it is the largest parliamentary body in the world. Under China's current Constitution, the NPC is structured as a
unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...
legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
, with the power to legislate, to oversee the operations of the government, and to elect the major officials of state. Its delegates are elected for a five-year term through a multi-tiered
electoral system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections ma ...
. The NPC and the National Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a consultative body whose members represent various
social group In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties ...
s, are the main deliberative bodies of China, and are often referred to as the '' Lianghui'' ('Two Sessions'). The NPC, elected for a term of five years, holds annual sessions every spring, usually lasting from 10 to 14 days, in the Great Hall of the People on the west side of
Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen ...
,
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
. These annual meetings are usually timed to occur with the meetings of the CPPCC, providing an opportunity for the officers of state to review past policies and present future plans to the nation. The fourth session of the 12th NPC was held from 5 to 16 March 2016. The NPC generally has a reputation of approving the work of the State Council and not engaging in overmuch drafting of laws itself. However, it and its Standing Committee do occasionally assert themselves. For example, the State Council and the CCP were unable to secure passage of a fuel tax in 2009 to finance the construction of expressways.


Leadership


National leadership

The CCP Politburo Standing Committee consists of the government's top leadership. Historically it has had five to nine members, and currently has seven members. Its officially mandated purpose is to conduct policy discussions and make decisions on major issues when the Politburo, a larger decision-making body, is not in session. According to the CCP's
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
, the General Secretary of the Central Committee must also be a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee. The membership of the PSC is strictly ranked in protocol sequence. Historically, the general secretary (or party chairman) has been ranked first; the rankings of other leaders have varied over time. Since the 1990s, the general secretary (also the president), premier, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, the
chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference () is the leader of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is a political advisory body i ...
, the
secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China is the head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The Secretary is a very important political position, serving as one of the top lea ...
, the party's top anti-graft body, and the first-ranked secretary of the CCP secretariat have consistently also been members of the Politburo Standing Committee.


Paramount leader

Power is concentrated in the paramount leader, currently Xi Jinping, who heads the four most important political and state offices: He is the general secretary of the CCP Central Committee,
Chairman of the Central Military Commission Chairman of the Central Military Commission may refer to: *Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China) *Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea See also *Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the ...
, and
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
of the PRC. Near the end of Hu Jintao's term in office, experts observed growing limitations to the Paramount leader's ''de facto'' control over the government, but at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017, Xi Jinping's term limits were removed and his powers were expanded considerably.


President

The President of the People's Republic of China is the
head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...
. Under the PRC's
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
, the presidency is a largely ceremonial office with limited powers.Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University
, EXECUTIVE: THE PRESIDENT OF THE CHINESE REPUBLIC.
However, since 1993, as a matter of convention, the presidency has been held simultaneously by the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, the top
leader Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
in the
one-party system A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
. The office is officially regarded as an institution of the state rather than an administrative post; theoretically, the president serves at the pleasure of the
National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...
, the legislature, and is not legally vested to take executive action on its own prerogative. The current president is
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
, who took office in March 2013. The office was first established in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1954 and successively held by Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi. Liu fell into political disgrace during the Cultural Revolution, after which the office became vacant. The office was abolished under the Constitution of 1975, then reinstated in the Constitution of 1982, but with reduced powers. The official English-language
translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
of the title was " Chairman"; after 1982, this translation was changed to "
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
", although the Chinese title remains unchanged. In March 2018, presidential term limits were abolished.


State Council

The State Council is the chief authority of the People's Republic of China. It is appointed by the National People's Congress and is chaired by the Premier of China and includes the heads of each governmental department and agency. There are about 50 members in the council. In the politics of the People's Republic of China, the
Central People's Government The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the p ...
forms one of three interlocking branches of power, the others being the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. The State Council directly oversees the various subordinate People's Governments in the provinces, and in practice maintains an interlocking membership with the top levels of the CCP. Currently the Premier of the State Council is Li Keqiang and the Vice Premiers are
Han Zheng Han Zheng (; born 22 April 1954) is a Chinese politician serving as the Senior Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, State Council. He has also been leader of the Ce ...
, Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua and Liu He. Together with the five
State Councilor A state councillor () is a high-ranking position within the State Council, the executive organ of the Chinese government (comparable to a cabinet). It ranks immediately below the Vice-Premiers and above the ministers of various departments. ...
s, they form the inner cabinet that regularly convenes for the State Council Executive Meeting.


Central Military Commission

The Central Military Commission (CMC) exercises the command and control of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and is supervised by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. It is nominally considered the supreme military policy-making body and its chairman, elected by the National People's Congress. Actual command and control of the PLA resides with the Central Military Commission of the CCP Central Committee. The commission is headed by the CMC Chairman, who is also the commander-in-chief of the national armed forces including the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Armed Police (PAP), and the
Militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
. Currently, the chairman of the Central Military Commission is Xi Jinping.


National Supervisory Commission

The
National Supervisory Commission National Supervisory Commission of the People's Republic of China is the highest anti-corruption agency of the People's Republic of China, at the same administrative ranking as Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. Its oper ...
(NSC) is the highest supervisory (
anti-corruption Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive meas ...
) agency of the PRC. At the same administrative ranking as the
Supreme People's Court The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of nation ...
and
Supreme People's Procuratorate The Supreme People's Procuratorate () is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was r ...
, it supervises all public officials who exercise public power. Its operations are merged with the
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the pa ...
of the CCP. It replaces the former
Ministry of Supervision The Ministry of Supervision of the People's Republic of China (MOS) was a Cabinet-level department of the State Council responsible for maintaining an efficient, disciplined, clean and honest government, and educate public servants about their ...
. Currently the director of National Supervisory Commission is Yang Xiaodu.


Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate

The Supreme People's Court is the judicial organ of the People's Republic of China.
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
, as special administrative regions, have separate judicial systems based on British common law traditions and Portuguese civil-law traditions respectively, and are out of the jurisdiction of the Supreme People's Court. The judges of the Supreme People's Court are appointed by the National People's Congress. , the President of SPC and the Procurator-General of SPP are
Zhou Qiang Zhou Qiang (; born 25 April 1960) is a Chinese politician who is the current Chief Justice and President of the Supreme People's Court of China. Previously, he served as the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Hunan committee, the effec ...
and Zhang Jun, respectively.


Provincial and local government

The governors of China's
provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
and autonomous regions and mayors of its centrally controlled municipalities are appointed by the central government in Beijing after receiving the nominal consent of the National People's Congress (NPC). The
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
and
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...
special administrative regions The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...
(SARS) have some local autonomy since they have separate governments, legal systems, and basic constitutional laws, but they come under Beijing's control in matters of foreign policy and national security, and their chief executives are handpicked by the central government. Below the provincial level in 2004 there were 50 rural
prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...
, 283 prefecture-level cities, 374 county-level cities, 852 county-level districts under the jurisdiction of nearby cities, and 1,636 counties. There also were 662 cities (including those incorporated into the four centrally controlled municipalities), 808 urban districts, and 43,258 township-level regions. Counties are divided into
townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
and
villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
. While most are run by appointed officials, some lower-level jurisdictions have direct popular elections. The organs of
self-governing __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...
ethnic autonomous areas (regions, prefectures, and counties)—peoples' congresses and peoples' governments—exercise the same powers as their provincial-level counterparts but are guided additionally by the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and require NPC Standing Committee approval for regulations they enact "in the exercise of autonomy" and "in light of the political, economic, and cultural characteristics of the ethnic group or ethnic groups in the areas." While operating under strict control and supervision by the central government, China's local governments manage relatively high share of fiscal revenues and expenditures.


Civil service


See also

* Central People's Government (1949–54) * Five Yuans of the Republic of China * History of political parties in China *
Political systems of Imperial China The political systems of Imperial China can be divided into a state administrative body, provincial administrations, and a system for official selection. The three notable tendencies in the history of Chinese politics includes, the convergence of ...
* Politics of the People's Republic of China **
Elections in China Elections in the People's Republic of China are based on a hierarchical electoral system, whereby local People's Congresses are directly elected. All higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC), the nationa ...
** Orders of precedence in China


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

*


External links


Official website of the Chinese Central Government
{{DEFAULTSORT:Government Of The People's Republic Of China