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1 [1] (March 10, 2026)

handle is hein.crs/govettb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: China Primer: China's Political System 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 and among the G-20 major economies. As Congress has intensified its focus on China over the last decade, some Members have increasingly sought to legislate and conduct oversight on matters that require an understanding of the PRC political system. The Party-State The PRC is 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, per the CPC Constitution, exercises 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, with the Party leader at every level outranking his (or occasionally her) government counterpart. Provincial Party secretaries outrank governors, and municipal Party secretaries outrank mayors. Updated March 10, 2026 Xi Jinping, 72, leads the PRC party-state. He has served since 2012 as CPC General Secretary and Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission (CMC), the body that oversees the Party's armed wing. Since 2013, Xi also has served as PRC President, a head-of-state position with limited responsibilities. Xi broke norms by claiming third five-year terms in his Party and state posts starting in 2022 and 2023. He has not indicated whether he will seek fourth five-year terms in his Party posts at the CPC's 21st National Congress, to be held in the second half of 2027. The Communist Party of China The CPC, officially founded in 1921, established the PRC on October 1, 1949. Today, the CPC's 100.3 million members constitute 7% of China's population. All members applied and underwent vetting to join. The Party's apex institution is the 205-member Central Committee, with General Secretary Xi as its core. An all-male, all Han- ethnicity, 23-person subset of the Central Committee serves on its elite Political Bureau (Politburo). A 7-person subset of the Politburo serves on its Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decisionmaking body. (Figure 1.) Figure I. 20th CPC Hierarchy (left) and CPC Central Committee Politburo Standing Committee (right) Chairman, General Secretary, Central Military Centra I Committee Commission 4- Xi Jinping0 (hiune 19s3) General secretary, CPC Central Committee Chairman, CPC and State Central Military Commissions State President Li QiangO0 (b' July 1959i) (ADecember 1955) Secretary, CPC Central Commimttee Secretarial Director, CPC Central Committee Zhao LejiO (& March 7957)1 Chairperson, Nationa Peopldst(ongress Ding Xue,Xlang0 (b.5eptember 1962) \lce Premier, State Council Wang HuningO ,. October 1955) Chairperson, Chinese Peops Poltical Con~sultative Confeience b. October 1956) Seaetary CPC Central Commnission for Discipline lnspection Source: CRS graphic by Mari Y. Lee, based on data from the Communist Party of China's news portal, http://cpc.people.com.cn. Note: Data current as of 3/10/2026. 20th Central Committee (CC) Politburo Standing Committee members are listed in rank order. The 20th CC, CDIC, and CMC took office in 2022. Since then, the CC has lost 14 members (12 expelled, one resigned, one died), and promoted 14 alternate members to fill its vacancies. The 20th CMC has lost three members (expelled); two of the remaining four are under investigation. ttDs://crsr