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Today, the world political system is mainly composed of the monarchy and the republicanism. Definitely and currently, China belongs to the latter one. However, the republicanism can be further divided into parliamentary system and presidential system. Founded in October 1949, Chinese political system, essentially equaling to parliamentary system, is the political structure, fundamental laws, rules, regulations and practices which are carried out in China's mainland and standardizes the state power, the government system, and the relationship between the state and the society of the People's Republic of China. It mainly includes the Constitutional System, the People's Congress System, the Party in Power, the System of Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation, the Central and Local Administrative System, the System of the Head of State, the System of Self-government of Ethnic Autonomous Areas, Special Administrative Regions.

 

The Constitution is the fundamental law of the state. The present Constitution was adopted and implemented by the 5th Session of the 5th National People's Congress. It stipulates major political principles in China and the position and rights of the citizen in the political life of the country. All the political decisions and implementations must be under the guidance of Constitution.

 

The politics of the People's Republic of China is exercised under a single-party socialist republic. State power in China is practiced through the Chinese Communist Party, the Central People's Government and their provincial and local counterparts. Chinese Communist Party established the People's Republic of China in 1949 and is the sole party in power in China. It was founded in 1921 and now has more than 60 million members. It has established formal and informal organizations within the Chinese government and various levels and walks of life in the country. The central organizations of the Party include the National Party Congress and the Central Committee, the Political Bureau, its Standing Committee, the General Secretary, etc. The National Party Congress and the Central Committee is the highest body of the Party. The Central Committee is responsible to and reports its work to the National Party Congress. A National Party Congress is held once by the Communist Party of China every five years to approve changes to the Party constitution concerning policy and to elect a Central Committee. The Central Committee decides the number of delegates to the National Party Congress and the method of election. The Central Committee is elected for a term of five years. The Political Bureau, its Standing Committee and General Sectary are the leading organs of the Central Committee.

 

The Chinese Government has always been subordinate to the Chinese Communist Party; its main role is to implement party policies. In China, the People's congress system is the fundamental political system. All power belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise state power are the National People's Congress (NPC) and the local people's congresses. Therefore, it features the extensive representation and is the basic form for the people to govern the country. NPC guarantees that the people have equal democracy and rights and the state power is exercised in a centralized and unified way. NPC is also the legislature authority and has the right to supervise and restrict the State Council (administrative) and Court of Law (judicial), which in reverse are not allowed to supervise and restrict National People's Congress. Therefore, China does not implement the separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers as many Western countries do.

 

NPC is the highest authority of state power in China. NPC is elected for a term of five years and convened by its Standing Committee and meets annually for about 2 weeks to review and approve major new policy directions, laws, the budget and other changes. These proposals put forward by the State Council must be endorsed by the Communist Party's Central Committee before they are presented to the NPC for consideration. The National People's Congress has the right to amend the Constitution, to formulate the fundamental law, to elect as well as to recall the state's important leaders including the President, the Vice President, the Premier, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, etc. It has to examine and ratify the plan for national economic and social development and the report on its implementation; it also takes the responsibility to examine and ratify the state budget and the report on its implementation, etc.

 

The local people's congresses and their Standing Committees are local organs of state power and exercise the state power within their respective administrative area. Deputies to the people's congresses at all levels are elected and overseen by the people. They are widely representatives and come from all ethnic group, all walks of life, and all regions, classes and strata. Because they come from the people, they can keep close relationship with their own constituencies and can listen to their views and demands seriously. When the congresses are held to discuss issues concerning nation's principles and policies, they can convey their views completely and implement the decisions quickly. Hence, people's views can be collected and the people have the same opportunity to administer state affairs through the people's congresses.

 

The administrative system refers to a series of regulations and practices in regard to composition, power and activities of the state administrative organs. It includes the central administrative organs under the system of the National People's Congress and the local administrative organs at various levels under the leadership of the central administrative organs.

 

The central administrative organ is the State Council. The State Council, also called the Central People's Government, is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is under the leadership of the Premier and consists of the heads of each government department and agency. There are about 50 members in the Council. It directly supervises the various subordinate People's Governments in the provinces, and in practice keeps an interlocking membership with the Communist Party of China. Chinese Constitution, the fundamental law of China, promulgates that only the State Council and local People's governments perform the administrative power.

 

The local administrative system means the systems and practices of establishing administrative regional divisions and setting up local administrative organs in order to facilitate the implementation of local administration. The local governments of the People's Republic China are structured on four different levels. They are the township, county, prefecture or municipality and the province in accordance with the geographical area of jurisdiction. Each level is taking charge of supervising the work carried out by lower levels on the administrative strata. There are two important officials at each level. One is called the Party chief, the representative of the Communist Party of China, and the other is called the governor, the head of the local People's Government. The former is elected by their superiors and latter by the people theoretically. The Party chief acts as the policy maker and the governor acts to carry out the policies.

 

Provincial governments are the first-level local state administrative organs in China. It must accept the unified leadership of the State Council. Provincial governments carry out local laws, regulations and decisions of the provincial people's congresses and their standing committees. They are accountable to and report on their work to provincial people's congresses and their standing committees, which have the right to oversee the work of provincial governments, to change and to cancel the inappropriate decisions. Provincial governments are the leader of governments at levels of the cities, counties, townships and have the power to exercise unified administration over economic, social and cultural affairs.

 

Governments of municipalities are also the first-level local state administrative organs in China. Now, there are 4 municipalities in China directly under the leadership of the Central Government, that is, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing. They almost function the same as the provincial governments. City governments can be divided into city governments with sub-provincial ranking, governments of prefecture-level cities, prefecture–level cities administering counties and county-level cities, governments of county-level cities and district governments. All of them have to accept the leadership of the governments at higher levels and have the right to deal with their local affairs.

The System of Self-government of Ethnic Autonomous Areas is a kind of political system with Chinese characteristics to solve the ethnic minority issues. This system can provide more autonomy for the ethnic groups and make these areas enjoy the same status as provinces. They can independently deal with their own local affairs without the participation of Central People's Government. This shows the devolution of the authority of the government. Now, there are altogether 5 autonomous regions in China.

 

There are two special administrative regions in China: Hong Kong and Macao. In these two places, Chinese government implements the policy of "One country, two systems", which means they can maintain the capitalism and do not have to enforce the socialism as Chinese mainland does. These two places have the high degree of autonomy. They have the legislative authority, the executive power, and independent judicial power. Special Administrative Regions use their own currencies and all the fiscal revenues owned by them. They do not have to pay the taxes to the Central People's Government.

 

In China, the President is the head of state of the People's Republic of China. The President without the administrative power is mainly responsible for the Chinese domestic and foreign affairs. Its term is about five years and no more than two consecutive terms can be served. The President is nominated by the presidium and elected by the National People's Congress.

 

The System of Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation is the basic political system in China. It means that only under the leadership of Communist Party of China other political parties have the right to participate in the administration and discussion of state affairs, to cooperate with CPC to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. Their cooperation is based on the principle of "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision, treating each other with full sincerity and sharing weal or woe."

 

Today, through continuous efforts and reforms, People's Republic of China has formed a complete political system, which brings prosperity and peaceful life to this country.