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1 [1] (September 29, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govenav0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service 0 September 29, 2023 China Primer: China's Political System Introduction The People's Republic of China (PRC or China) is the only Communist Party-led state among the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council or among the members of the G-20 grouping of major economies. As Congress has intensified its focus on China in the context of U.S.-China strategic competition, Members have increasingly sought to legislate and conduct oversight on matters that require an understanding of the PRC political system. Select features of that system are introduced below. The Party-State The PRC is both a nation state and a Leninist party-state. The Communist Party of China (CPC), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has led China for 74 years, since 1949, longer than any other communist party in history. The Party now has 98 million members, nearly 7% of China's population, all of whom completed a demanding application and vetting process to join. The political system also includes a state, or government, tasked with administration. Interlocking Party and state hierarchies extend down to the level of small towns. At every level, the Party leader outranks the government leader. Xi Jinping, 70, leads the PRC party-state. He has served since 2012 as CPC General Secretary and Chairman of the Party's Central Military Commission, which oversees the Party's armed wing, the People's Liberation Army (PLA). (The PLA formally and explicitly serves the Party, not the nation.) Xi also has served since 2013 as PRC President, a head of state position that officially has a minor role in the operations of the PRC government. Xi began his third five- year terms in his Party and state posts in 2022 and 2023. The Communist Party of China The Party's top national-level institution is the Central Committee, led by the General Secretary and including an elite 24-person Political Bureau (Politburo) and an even more elite 7-man Politburo Standing Committee. Several Politburo Standing Committee members hold concurrent posts atop other parts of the political system, ensuring Party control of all political life in China. (Figure 1) Figure 1. Hierarchies of the Communist Party of China and Its Top Decisionmaking Body, the Party Politburo Standing Committee (PSB) PSB members are listed in rank order; several hold concurrent positions in other hierarchies; current as of Sept. 29, 2023 Charman, General Secretary, Central Military Central Committee Commission - Political Bureau fi Member 7 Memmer (Politburo) Standing 1- Committee sO&eau IT wirect-on of authodty Xi Jinping C ~tjJuric 7953) GQII'fW ~r~kry. (PC (er~t~~ Comm tI~e (Idi TidflIPCd iStateQAT.~ M it~ry(omrniMions z~jtc Pfciueiit LiQiangO ruyU Ca I4 0 Zhao Leji rah 97 Ding Xuexiang0 ( September T962) V ce Pr(em&er StaPe Counfcil Wang HuningO bcober 195S5) (hairperson Irnse f& October 1956) cretAry, i PC t~n ral (ommssron tar Lis~dpiiiw lfnspe( Kvn Source: CRS graphic by Mari Lee, based on data from the Communist Party of China's news portal, http://cpc.people.com.cn/. https://crsreports.congress.gov