Section C　Government and Politics of China

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is a socialist country led by the working class, based on the worker-peasant alliance and practicing people's democratic centralism. The primary system in China is the socialist system.

1. The Constitution

The Constitution of the PRC is nominally the supreme law within the PRC. Since the establishment of the PRC on October 1, 1949, the constitution had been adopted and amended respectively in 1954, 1975, 1978 and 1982. The current version was adopted on the fifth Plenary Session on the Fifth National People's Congress on December 4, 1982 with further revisions in 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2018. The Constitution has 5 sections which are the preamble, general principles, the fundamental rights and duties of citizens, the structure of the state[2], the national flag, the national anthem, the national emblem and the capital. There are 4 chapters and 143 articles in total. The fundamental features of the Constitution are setting the fundamental system and tasks, establishing the Four Basic Principles, and laying the basic rationales for reform. The Constitution stipulates that all activities undertaken by its citizens and organizations shall be subject to the Constitution. Any organization or individual cannot surpass the Constitution and law, and the Constitution is the highest law within the PRC.

2. The Chinese Government

The National People's Congress (NPC)

The PRC practices the system of people's congress. China's Constitution stipulates that all power in the PRC belongs to the people, and the organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People's Congress (NPC) and the local people's congresses at different levels. All citizens of the PRC who are over the age of 18 years have the right to elect or be elected as NPC deputies, regardless of ethnic status, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status or length of residence. Deputies of the people's congresses of the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities are directly under the Central Government. The term for deputies is five years, and the congress is held annually.

The basic functions and powers of the NPC are to amend the Constitution, to supervise the enforcement of the Constitution, to enact and amend basic laws of the state, and to decide on the major national leaders, including the President, Vice President, the Premier of the State Council and other component members of the State Council, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission and other component members of the Central Military Commission, the Director of National Supervisory Commission, the President of the Supreme People's Court and the Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate. The NPC examines and approves the plan for national economic and social development and the report on its implementation; examines and approves the state budget and the report on its implementation; and makes decisions on other important issues in national life.

The permanent organ of the NPC is its Standing Committee, which is responsible to the NPC. It serves the same term as the NPC, and it functions as the highest body of state power and accepts supervision by the NPC when it is not in session. Under normal circumstances, the NPC Standing Committee meets every two months, but extraordinary meetings can be convened as required.

The President

The President of the PRC is the head of state of the PRC. According to the current Constitution of the PRC, the President must be a Chinese citizen who has the right to vote and stand for election and has reached the age of 45, and there are no term limits attached to this office from 2018. The President is elected by the NPC which also has the power to remove the President and other state officers from office. The President has the power to promulgate laws, select and dismiss the Premier as well as the ministers of the State Council, grant presidential pardons, declares a state of emergency, issue mass mobilization orders, and issue state honors. In addition, the President names and dismisses ambassadors to foreign countries, signs and annuls treaties with foreign entities. According to the Constitution, all powers mentioned above require the approval or confirmation of the NPC. Besides, the President also conducts state visits on behalf of the PRC.

State Council

The State Council, or the Central People's Government, is the chief administrative authority of the PRC. It is comprised of a premier, vice-premiers, state councilors, ministers in charge of ministries and commissions, the auditor-general and the secretary-general. Currently, the council has 35 members: the premier, one executive vice premier, three vice premiers, five state councilors (of whom two are also ministers), and 25 additional ministers and chairs of major agencies. At present, the State Council includes 26 ministries, commissions and departments, such as Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, People's Bank of China and National Audit Office, etc..

As the chief administrative organ of government, its main functions are to formulate administrative measures, issue decisions and orders, and monitor their implementation; draft legislative bills for submission to the NPC or its Standing Committee; and prepare the economic plan and the state budget for deliberation and approval by the NPC. The State Council is formally responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee in conducting a wide range of government functions both at the national and at the local levels, and it is the executive body of the highest organ of state power and administration.

The State Central Military Commission

The State Central Military Commission is the supreme leading organ of the armed forces of the PRC, and it directs and commands the national armed forces. The armed forces are the People's Liberation Army[3], People's Police Force (be responsible for keeping security of the country and order of the society), and Civilian Force (the civilian armed forces). The Chairman of the Central Military Commission is elected by the NPC, and the selection of other members is decided by the NPC and its Standing Committee on the basis of the nomination by the chairman. The State Central Military Commission is responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee. The term for the State Central Military Commission is five years, but there is no limit to the number of terms.

The State Central Military Commission is considered the supreme military policy-making body and its chairman is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The Chairman is responsible to the NPC and has the right to make final decisions within its functions and powers.

The National Supervisory Commission

The National Supervisory Commission is the highest anti-corruption agency of the PRC, at the same administrative ranking as Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate. The National Supervision Commission was formed at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress in 2018. The Commission includes the director, deputy director, and ordinary members, and the director is appointed by the NPC.

The Supreme People's Court

The Supreme People's Court is the highest judicial organ and the highest trial organ in China, and it is responsible to the NPC and its Standing Committee. Its structure comprises a judicial committee, or the highest judicial organization, and courts. The appointment of the President and the Vice President of the Supreme People's Court and the members of its Judicial Committee are decided by the NPC.

It independently exercises the highest judicial power according to the law and without any interruption by administrative organs, social organizations or individuals. According to the Constitution and statutes, the main responsibilities of the Supreme People's Court are trying cases that have the greatest influence in China, hearing appeals against the legal decisions of higher courts, and trying the cases the Supreme People's Court claims are within its original jurisdiction; supervising the work of local courts and special courts at every level, overruling wrong judgments they might have made, and deciding interrogations and reviewing cases tried by the lower courts; and giving judicial explanations of the specific utilization of laws in the judicial process that must be carried out nationwide.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate

The Supreme People's Procuratorate is the highest procuratorial organ. It is mainly responsible for supervising regional procuratorates and special procuratorates to perform legal supervision by law and protecting the unified and proper enforcement of State laws. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has to report its work to the NPC and its Standing Committee to whom it is responsible, and accept their supervision.

3. Parties

China is a multi-party country. Apart from the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), there are eight political parties. They were established long before the founding of the PRC. Every political party is independent in terms of organization, and they enjoy the rights of political freedom, organizational independence, and equality within the scope of the Constitution. Politically other eight political parties support the leadership of the CPC, and it is the historic choice they made during the long-term cooperation and efforts with the CPC.

The Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, the faithful representative of the interests of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and the core of leadership over the socialist cause of China. CPC's maximum program of long objective is to realize the Communist social system and the minimum program at present is to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. The CPC takes Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as the guidance of its actions. The CPC's basic line for the primary stage of socialism is to unite with and lead the people of all ethnic groups in the endeavor to build China into a prosperous, strong, democratic and highly civilized modern socialist state by taking economic development as the central task, adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles[4], persisting in reform and opening up, developing the spirit of self-reliance and pioneering enterprises with painstaking efforts.

Chinese workers, farmers, soldiers, intellectuals and other revolutionaries, who have reached 18 years of age, accept the Party Program and Party Constitution, are willing to participate in one Party organization and actively work in it, carry out Party resolutions and pay regular Party dues, may apply for membership in the CPC. Party members must be admitted through a Party branch according to the principles of admitting members individually only, without exception. On the other hand, Party members are free to withdraw from the Party. When a Party member asks to withdraw from the Party, the matter shall be referred to the Party branch for discussion at a general meeting, and then his or her name must be declared struck from the rolls, and a report must be made to the Party organization at the next higher level for the record.

The central organizations of the CPC are the CPC's National Congress, its Central Committee, the General Secretary, the Central Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, the Central Secretariat, the Central Military Commission and the Central Commission for discipline inspection. The CPC's National Congress, held once every five years, is convened by the Central Committee. If the Central Committee deems it necessary, or over one-third of the provincial-level organizations express a demand, the congress may be held ahead of schedule; and if there is no special situation, its convening shall not be postponed. When the national congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest leading organ of the CPC, and the Central Committee is responsible to and reports its work to the National Congress.

Founded in 1921, the CPC helped establish the PRC in 1949 through years of armed struggles. After that, the CPC led Chinese people of all ethnic groups in defending the independence and security of the country, successfully completing the transition from new democracy to socialism. From 1979, the CPC began to carry out the reform and opening-up policy, and in the past three decades since the initiation of these reforms, China's economic and social development has been crowned with remarkable success and the country has taken on a new look.

Other Political Parties

Apart from the CPC, other eight political parties are China Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, China Democratic League, China Democratic National Construction Association, China Association for Promoting Democracy, China Peasants and Workers' Democratic Party, China Zhi Gong Dang, Jiusan Society, and the Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League. Most of them were founded during the anti-Japanese War and the national liberation war, and soon after their founding, these parties developed cooperative relations with the CPC at different levels.

According to the principles of "long-term coexistence, mutual supervision, sincere treatment with each other and the share of weal or woe" , the political parties in China are not opposition parties, but parties giving full cooperation to the CPC to jointly strive for the socialist cause. At present, these political parties have their local and basic organizations in every province, municipalities directly under the Central Government, autonomous regions, and large and medium-sized cities. They are actually friendly parties of the CPC that participate in state administration.