Central organization edit

Ruling institutions edit

Central Committee organization edit

Lower-level organization edit

Institutions edit

The lower-level party is structured identically in the provinces; autonomous regions; municipalities directly under the central government; cities divided into districts; autonomous prefectures; counties (including banners); autonomous counties; cities not divided into districts; and municipal districts.[1] To clarify, this is to say that the same institutions of secretary, standing committee, committee, commission for discipline inspection and congress exists at all levels of the country's administrative divisions.[1] Below there will be descriptions of the each of the five institutions and how they function:

  • Committee secretary: The post of committee secretary at the lower-levels is analogous to the central-level office of General Secretary of the Central Committee.[2] According to a document published by the Chinese Government in 2005, there are 1, 31, 15, 333, 2862, 41636 people who serves as committee secretaries at the "central, provincial, deputy-provincial, municipal, county and township" level.[2] Committee secretary is an all powerful office; according to Yang Songquan, who served as Secretary of the Shangcai County Committee, “The County Committee of CCP provides leadership in everything; the secretary as FIC [first-in-command] controls everything.”[3] In a bid to limit their powers, the central leadership has sought to institute collective leadership, which means that all important decisions should be taken collegially.[4] The party has been unable to effectively supervise committee secretaries; in one incident in Shandong Province in 2006, an unemployed man managed to appoint 33 individuals to party posts by forging the committee secretary's signature.[5]
The committee secretary is elected by a party committee in the immediate aftermath (or during) of a party congress,[6] and needs the approval of the central committee to take office.[7] The standing committee, which represent the collective leading team system at the level, is suppose to curtail the power of the committee secretary.[5] A committee secretary, no matter what level, normally domineers the work of the standing committee since votes are not cast in secret.[8]
  • Standing committee: A standing committee is the basis for the collective leading team system, and is elected by a party committee in the immediate aftermath (or during) of a party congress.[9] The Politburo Standing Committee at the central-level is equivalent to the standing committees at the levels below.[9] A standing committee usually contains one secretary, two deputy secretaries (but there are cases up to four) and is composed of 13 members.[10] But there are exceptions; currently the standing committees in Hainan, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Shanghai have 12 members, Qinghai has 14 members and Xinjiang and Tibet have 15 members.[10] In the run-up to the 18th National Congress, every provincial party organization held a congress and a first plenary session; in total, 402 people were elected to provincial standing committees (404 if you include central appointments).[10] The first deputy secretary serves as governor (or chairman or mayor in the case of autonomous regions and municipalities, respectively).[7]
the executive vice governor, the heads of the Organization and Propaganda Departments, the head of the commission for discipline inspection, the head of the political and legal affairs commission, and a representative of the military (usually the head of the provincial military district). In the case of provinces and autonomous regions, the Party Secretary of provincial capitals also have ex officio seats on the provincial Party Standing Committee. Sometimes the head of the united front department and the party chief of other key subdivisions also have seats on the standing committee.
  • Committee: The committee is analogous to the Central Committee, the party's highest institution between national congresses.[7] It is elected by congress delegates at every level, and is the highest institution in between congresses when in session.[7] The number of members of a committee various from locality to locality and province to province; for instance, the Tibet Provincial Committee has only 60 members while the Guangdong Provincial Committee has 93 members.[11] A large party committee does not lead to a larger standing committee; the Guangdong Standing Committee has 13 members while the Tibet Standing Committee has 15.[11]
  • Commission for discipline inspection:
  • Political and legal affairs commission:
  • Organization department
  • Propaganda department
  • United front department
  • Congress: The congress is the highest institution at every level of the CPC.[7] A provincial congress is held every fifth year, and convenes before the provincial people's congress.[7] Because of the CPC electoral system, in which the provincial congress elects delegates to attend the National Congress, a provincial congress has to be held several months before the National Congress convenes.[7] In the run-up to the 18th National Congress, the first provincial congresses began convening in June 2011.[7] The last provincial-level congress, the 11th Beijing Municipal Congress, ended on 3 July 2012.[7]
To become a delegate to a congress one has to be elected by one of the electoral units in the committee's jurisdiction.[7] For instance, party members under the jurisdiction of the Beijing Municipal Committee are divided into 179 electoral units.[7] Combined the 179 units elected 750 delegates to the 11th Beijing Municipal Congress.[7] How many delegates are to attend a given congress is decided by the higher-level party committee; the provincial committee decides the number of delegates attending a prefectural level congress.[12] In addition a congress is empowered to invite former leaders to attend as honorary delegates.[7] The 11th Beijing Municipal Congress divided the 750 delegates into 31 delegations (which were conceived along institutional lines); "16 delegations from counties and districts, five from state-owned enterprise sector, three from the education sector, six from the municipal organizations, and one representing the Beijing Garrison and the armed police."[7]

Duties and responsibilities edit

As with its state counterparts, higher-level party committees have the same duties and responsibilities as their lower-level counterparts.[13] That is to say that while a municipal party committee is responsible for its designated area of jurisdiction, the provincial party committee has the same authority over it.[13] In addition the municipal party committee needs to seek approval for all its decisions from the provincial party committee to implement its policies.[13] In similar vain to its state constitution, the party constitution decentralize authorities to lower-level agencies it never grants them autonomy.[13]

Provincial edit

Sub-provinicial levels edit

Institutional history edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b "Constitution of the Communist Party of China". People's Daily. Communist Party of China. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b Ren & Du 2008, p. 47.
  3. ^ Ren & Du 2008, p. 48.
  4. ^ Ren & Du 2008, pp. 45–46.
  5. ^ a b Ren & Du 2008, p. 49.
  6. ^ Ren & Du 2008, p. 51.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Bo 2014, p. 76.
  8. ^ Ren & Du 2008, p. 53.
  9. ^ a b Ren & Du 2008, p. 52.
  10. ^ a b c Bo 2014, p. 78.
  11. ^ a b Bo 2014, p. 79.
  12. ^ Landry 2008, p. 56.
  13. ^ a b c d Landry 2008, pp. 53–57.

References edit

Articles, journal entries
Books