Government Institutions

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

• categorized as authoritarian
• decision made by political elites-those that hold political power without much input from citizens
• leaders recruited through their member ship in CCP but personal relationships and informal ties to others are also important
• decentralization is now a major feature of economic decision-making for opening up the market
• CCP integrates its military into political hierarchy

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

• CCP at the heart of the political system
• claim legitimacy on representation of the historical best interests of all people
• society best led by an elite vanguard party with a superior understanding of the Chinese people and their needs (democratic centralism)

The Organization of the CCP

• organized hierarchically by levels - village/township, county, province, and nation
• the title "chairman" was abandoned after Mao's death and head of party is now called the "general secretary" 
• central bodies are:
• National Part Congress
• consists of more than 2000 delegates chose primarily from congress on lower levels
• meets every five years
• rubberstamps decisions made by party leaders
• elect members of the Central Committee
• Central Committee
• 340 members that meet together annually for about a week
• meetings are called plenums
• gatherings of political elites, and from their midst are chosen the Politburo and the Standing Committee
• Politburo/Standing Committee
• at the very top of CCP structure
• chosen by Central Committee
• decisions dictate government policies
• Politburo has 24 members and Standing Committee - chosen from the Politburo - has only 7

Non-Communist Parties

• CCP does allow 8 democratic parties
• tightly controlled by the CCP
• serve as an important advisory role to the party leaders

Elections

• PRC holds elections in order to legitimize the government and the CCP
• the only direct elections are held at the local level, with voters choosing deputies to serve on the county people's congresses
• the people's congresses at higher levels are selected from and by local levels

The Political Elite

• China recruits leaders through nomenklatura, a system of choosing cadres from lower levels of the party hierarchy for advancement based on their loyalty and contributions to the wellbeing of the party
• Chinese leaders communicate with one another through a patron-client network called guanxi

Factionalism

• factionalism in the year before Mao's death is demonstrated in the splits among the radicals
• Jian Qing and the Gang of Four
• military under Lin Biao 
• reformers under Zhou Enlai
• factions split in several ways:
• Conservatives
• concerned about any movement toward democracy and generally support crackdowns on organizations and individuals who act too independently
• Li Peng is the former premier and chair of the NPC 
• Reformers/Open Door
• supports major capitalist infusion into the PRC's economy and generally promotes an open door trade policy
• pushed for membership in the WTO
• don't necessarily support democratic reform but their focus is on economic growth and development
• Jiang Zemin the PRC President and CCP General Secretary until 2003
• Zhu Rongji the former governor of the central bank and the PRC premier until 2003
• current president Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao have allied with this faction
• Liberals
• out of power since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident 
• more accepting of political liberties and democratic movements than are the other factions 
• support economic and political reform
• Hu Yuobang's death started the protests in 1989
• Zhao Ziyang the Premier and General Secretary who was ousted for being too sympathetic with the Tiananmen protestors 
• Princelings
• an aristocracy of families with revolutionary credentials from the days of Mao Zedong
• some have been big beneficiaries of China's economic reforms
• others are critical of China's stark inequality and call for a return to socialist principles 
• Hu Haifeng, son of Hu Jintao, is a big provider of airport scanners
• Wen Yunsong is a financier who is the son of Wen Jiano
• the factions follow the process of fang-shou, a tightening up, loosening up cycle

Corruption

• guanxi and the economic boom of the past few decades have brought about rampant corruption within the Chinese econmic and political system 
• in 2007 the Chinese government was embarrassed by international publicity about tainted food, health products, and drugs that were making their way through the world market
• the press did not report the arrest of the deputy head of a state-run lottery in 2006 for several months 
• in 2011, the ministers responsible for building the high-speed rail network was dismissed for skimming huge amounts of money in bribes 

Interest Groups

• most factory workers belong to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and women's interests are represented in the All-China Women's Federation 
• in urban areas the party maintains social control through danwei - social units usually based on a person's place of work
• impact of the policymaking not clearly felt
• no legitimate organizational channel exists for farmers, making farmers more likely to have protests and petitions
• organizations and the state's relationship with them shows state corporatism as well as the logic of Lenin's democratic centralism

Media 

• the official press agency of the government Xinhua is huge, employing more than 10,000 people who are stationed not only in China but abroad as well
• the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the CCP, also depends on Xinhua for much of its information
• Chinese Central Television is the major state television broadcaster, and it broadcasts a variety of programs to more than one billion people 
• all media outlets are subject to heavy censorship by the government, which has several regulatory agencies that constantly monitor for subjects that are considered taboo by the government 

INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT 

• seen as parallel hierarchies that are separate yet interact
• the Communist Party
• the state or government
• the People's Liberation Army 
• relationship between the party and the government is controlled by the principle of dual role - vertical supervision of the next higher level of government and horizontal supervision of the Communist Party at the same level

The Structure of the Government

• three branches - a legislature, an executive, and a judiciary
• all parties controlled by the party 

The People's Congress

• National People's Congress at the top and continues in hierarchical levels down through the provincial, city, and local congresses
• the NPC chooses the president and vice president of China, but there is only one party-sponsored candidate for each position
• meetings are important because the Politburo's decisions are formally announced then

Executive/Bureaucracy

• President and vice president serve five year terms, are limited to two terms, and must be at least 45 years old
• Hu Jintao is both the president and the general secretary of the CCP
• the premier is the head of government formally appointed by the president but the position is always held by a member of the Standing Committee
• the premier directs the state council, which is composed of ministers who direct the many ministries and commissions of the bureaucracy, which is controlled by the principle of dual role - supervision from higher bodies in the government and by comparable bodies in the CCP
• the bureaucracy exists on all levels - national, provincial, county, and local
• lower levels are held by cadres, people in positions of authority who are paid by government or party

The Judiciary

• four-tiered "people's court" system
• a nationwide organization called the people's procuratorate provides public prosecutors and defenders to the courts
• Chinese political system now acknowledges rue of law, and interprets it to mean that laws bind behavior and all are equally subject to them
• the criminal justice system works swiftly and harshly

The People's Liberation Army (PLA)

• encompasses all of the country's ground, air, and naval armed services
• has been an important influence on politics and policy
• military is represented in the government by the Central Military Commission, which has been led by many prominent party leaders, including Deng Xiaoping