About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 [1] (July 1, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goveplm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: LCon ress~onaI Research Service ~ Informing th legi lalave debate since 1914 0 Updated July 1, 2024 China Primer: China's Political System Introduction The People's Republic of China (PRC or China) is the only Communist Party-led state either 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 government with administration. Interlocking Party and government hierarchies extend down to the level of small towns. At every level and in every institution, Party rank takes precedence over government rank. Xi Jinping, 71, 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 ofChina The CPC established the PRC on October 1, 1949. Today, the CPC's 99 million members constitute nearly 7% of China's population. All members completed an application and vetting process to join. The Party's highest institution is the Central Committee, led by the General Secretary and including a 24-man Political Bureau (Politburo) and a 7- man Politburo Standing Committee. The latter is China's top decisionmaking body. (Figure 1.) Figure I. Hierarchies of the Communist Party of China (CPC, left) and Its Top Decisionmaking Body, the Central Committee's Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC, right) PBSC members are listed in rank order; current as of July 1, 2024 Sp. a' c ~ r y. i~ Mht n n fnn~te m i I At~4uaf C .n i,ra1Mihit a r y j d aAhnM~y Lt Qiang_ CaJOIC ~ IX inplng0 Thao LejiS Wa rg Hungii ng tfllg~~tk*ngtIX L1 itgrb Ku nL,X Source: CRS graphic by Mari Y. Lee, based on data from the Communist Party of China's news portal, http://cpc.people.com.cn/. ,ongress.go