China Politics

The People's Republic of China, founded on October 1, 1949, exists today in much the same structural form as it did then. It is a communist, one-party republic that is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A few government-approved opposition parties do exist, and their representatives, organized under the banner of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), are ostensibly consulted by the government before major decisions are made. However, they are tightly controlled by the CCP-run government, and their actual influence appears to be negligible. Ideologically, the political system is founded on the Four Cardinal Principles: the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the leadership of the CCP, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought.

The country is governed on the national level by two parallel structures: the leadership of the government itself and the leadership of the CCP. The relationship between the two is vaguely defined and continuously in flux; all government officials are members of the Communist Party, and the leaders of the former tend to be the leaders of the latter, but the two institutions are formally separate anyway. The main legislative decision-making body of the government is the National People's Congress, and the chief executive body is the State Council. The former is composed of delegates elected from the CCP and is governed by the Standing Committee of the Politburo (Political Bureau) and the Secretariat.

Local governments, from the provincial down to the town level, follow a similar pattern, with power formally in the hands of government bodies and effectively in the hands of local Communist Party leaders. A number of mass organizations, all affiliated with the government or the party, are the primary means of political participation for most citizens. Also important to the daily life of individuals is the danwei, or work unit, whose influence extends far beyond the professional lives of members. Typically, members of a given danwei live in the same building or complex of buildings and participate in political meetings or other activities together. The danwei itself oversees a wide range of personal logistics, from the issuing of marriage permits to changes of residence, for its members.

The Chinese government does not tend to tolerate political criticism or dissent from outside the CCP, but moderates within the party have cautiously advocated political reform. The judicial system, which was non-existent during the Maoist era, has been allowed to take on a more prominent role in recent years. Property rights and commerce laws and regulations have been established. Civil lawsuits increased by 13,000% between 1986 and 1996. Since 1987, experimental popular, multi-party elections have been held at the village level.