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1 [1] (October 24, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govengu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Updated October 24, 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), is China's dominant political institution. It operates a powerful and expansive bureaucracy and tasks itself with exercis[ing] overall leadership over all areas of endeavor in every part of the country. The Party tasks the state, or government, 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 (i.e., the premier, provincial governors, and mayors). Xi Jinping, 70, leads the PRC party-state. He has served since 2012 as CPC General Secretary and Chairman of the CPC 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 CPC has led China for 74 years, since 1949. It now has 98 million members, nearly 7% of China's population. All members completed a demanding application and vetting process to join. The Party's highest 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. (Figure 1) Figure 1. Hierarchies of the Communist Party of China (CPC, left) and Its Top Decisionmaking Body, the Party Central Committee's Politburo Standing Committee (PSB, right) PSB members are listed in rank order; several hold concurrent positions in other hierarchies; current as of October 24, 2023 Chairman, General Secretary, Central Military Central Committee Commission I| Political Bureau 9 Mmbe Ahaa __ (Politburo) Standing - l 4- Committee Xi Jinping0 ~ e ~ r Li Qiang 0 (& Jtly 1959) Preie tl StateCoc t (b Derembet 1935) Comm ttee Sccretart & D &etor, (PC C(nia I LCommriTte& Gen~eraI Ofce Zhao LejiG (Lx March 19%72 Champeson, Nat nl P (pl' Congres' Ding Xuexiang rb Septembet 1%2) Vk PremF'vrnI, Sa Coundc Wang HuningO (b Ocwober 1955) PeopkIrs PoImuks onsu atve Coniererwe &h Ocwber 1956) $ecietry Cj C Ceta Commissinn fcw DSd1~plhie npction S DIrection of authoity Source: CRS graphic by Mari Y. Lee, based on data from the Communist Party of China's news portal, http://cpc.people.com.cn/. http S