Political Institutions of China

1. Political Institutions of China

2. ELECTIONS • Party controls • Direct elections are held at the local level • Direct, secret-ballot elections at local level.

3. NONCOMMUNIST PARTIES • CCP allows the existence of eight "democratic" parties.  • Membership • Important advisory role to the party leaders.  • No independent democratic parties

4. Political Institutions CCP CHINESE GOVERNMENTPLA PARALLEL HIERARCHY • Three parallel hierarchies • Principle of dual role • China's policy making is governed more directly by factions and personal relationships (guanxi)

5. Organization of the CCP • Organized hierarchically by levels •  The party has a separate constitution from the government's constitution of 1982, and its central bodies are: • National Party Congress • Central Committee • Politburo/Standing Committee

6. Government • Three branches - a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary. • People's National Congress • The National People's Congress choose the President and Vice President of China, but there is only one party-sponsored candidate for each position Executive/Bureaucracy • The President and Vice President • The Premier • Bureaucracy

7. Guanxi • Chinese for patron-client relationships • Think nomenclatura in the CCP • Helps to build contacts and power • Can determine Politburo membership among other things

8. Executives • President and Premier (Prime Minister) • President is head of state with little constitutional power, but is sometimes the General Secretary of CCP • Prime Minister is head of State Council, or ministers, and is in charge of “departments” of government

9. Executives continued • They are elected for 5-year terms by National Peoples Congress, nominated by CCP’s National Party Congress • They also serve on Central Military Commission, which oversees the PLA • The CCP’s leader is the general secretary and he is in charge of bureaucracy, or Secretariat

11. The Legislature • Think of Russian Matrioshka dolls • Top legislative body is National Peoples Congress • 3,000 members chosen by provincial peoples congresses across the country • They meet in Beijing once a year for a couple of weeks to “legislate” for 1 billion+ people

12. Legislature • The National Peoples Congress chooses a Central Committee of 200 that meets every 2 months to conduct business • Inside this is the Central Committee’s Standing Committee which functions every day

13. Party Representation • Parallel structure • The National Party Congress is main representative body of CCP, not people • Has 2,000 delegates • Select 150-200 people chosen for Central Committee • It chooses a Politburo of 12 people to run party’s day to day business • Many of these people work in Secretariat so Politburo chooses a Standing Committee of 6 headed by General Secretary (Thus merging executive to legislative)

14. Merging of Executive and Legislative • Standing Committee of Politburo includes president and prime minister, plus closest associates, and the party legislative “branch” and party executive is joined with government executive

15. Bureaucracies • State Council • Government Ministers and Prime Minister carry out the decisions made by National Peoples Congress (or Politburo) • Chinese bureaucrats are paralled by party members assigned to their ministries • In spite of centralization, provincial and local ministries have had to adapt national policies to local needs

16. Judiciary • China has a 4-tiered "people's court" system • Handle criminal cases and government working on civil law codes • “People's Procuratorate" • Investigates suspected illegal activity • Criminal justice system campaigns.  • Human Rights organizations criticize China

17. THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.“ - Mao • The People's Liberation Army encompasses all of the country's ground, air, and naval armed services.  • Important influence on politics and policy.  The second half of Mao's famous quote above is less often quoted: "Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party."   This propaganda poster represents life in the "Red Army" - the military under Mao before the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949.

18. PLA continued • During the 1970s and 80s the government didn’t have money to modernize Army so fended for itself • It ran hotels, construction companies, factories that produced pirate copies of everything, satellite dishes • By 1990s government began controlling the Army and its activities

19. Policies and Issues • Economic reforms • Demand for political power and civil liberties? • Will contact through trade mean that China will become more like their trading partners? 

20. International Trade • Hong Kong • Special Economic Zones (SEZs). 

21. Taiwan • China trades with Taiwan, but the PRC views Taiwan as part of China and Taiwan does not • But they want to benefit from its trade

22. Political Change Today Democratic reforms can be seen in these ways: • Some input from the National People's Congress is accepted by the Politburo • More emphasis is placed on laws and legal procedures • Village elections are now semi-competitive, with choices of candidates and some freedom from the party's control

23. "A good leader should encouragedemocracy and also be capable of taking resolute action at criticalmoments." -CCP Chairman Hu Jintao

24. Politics Today • Hu was Chosen as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China on November 15, 2002 • Became President of the People's Republic of China on March 15, 2003, following his election by the National People's Congress, thus replacing his predecessor Jing Zemin. • He is the first party chief to have joined the Communist Party after the Revolution over 50 years ago • Claims to have a photographic memory and tends to have moderate views.