Communist Party of China

Communist Party of China
中国共产党
Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng
General Secretary Hu Jintao
Standing Committee Hu Jintao,
Wu Bangguo,
Wen Jiabao
Jia Qinglin,
Li Changchun
Xi Jinping,
Li Keqiang
He Guoqiang,
Zhou Yongkang
Founded July 1, 1921 (1st Party Congress)
August, 1920 (de facto)
Headquarters Zhongnanhai, Beijing
Membership  (2009) 77,995,000
Ideology communism, socialism with Chinese characteristics
Website
News on CPC
Politics of the People's Republic of China
Political parties
Elections
Communist Party of China
Simplified Chinese 中国共产党
Traditional Chinese 中國共產黨
Abbreviated name
Chinese 中共

The Communist Party of China (CPC), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is the world's largest political party.[1]

The legal power of the Communist Party is enshrined in the the PRC constitution[2]and its position as the supreme political authority in the PRC is realized through its control of all state and legislative processes.[3]

The Communist Party of China was founded in May 1921 in Shanghai, and came to rule all of mainland China in 1949 after defeating its rival the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War. The CPC claimed nearly 78 million members[4] at the end of 2009 which constitutes about 5.6% of the total population of mainland China.

Contents

Organization

The party's organizational structure was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt afterwards by Deng Xiaoping, who subsequently initiated "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and brought all state apparatuses back under the rule of the CPC.

Theoretically, the party's highest body is the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which meets at least once every five years. The primary organization of power in the Communist Party which is detailed in the party constitution include:

Other central organizations include:

In addition, there are numerous commissions and leading groups, the most important of which are:

Every five years, the Communist Party of China holds a National Congress. The latest happened on October 19, 2005. Formally, the Congress serves two functions: to approve changes to the Party constitution regarding policy and to elect a Central Committee, about 300 strong. The Central Committee in turn elects the Politburo. In practice, positions within the Central Committee and Politburo are determined before a Party Congress, and the main purpose of the Congress is to announce the party policies and vision for the direction of China in the following few years.

The party's central focus of power is the Politburo Standing Committee. The process for selecting Standing Committee members, as well as Politburo members, occurs behind the scenes in a process parallel to the National Congress. The new power structure is announced obliquely through the positioning of portraits in the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Party. The number of Standing Committee members varies and has tended to increase over time. The Committee was expanded to nine at the 16th Party National Congress in 2009.

There are two other key organs of political power in the People's Republic of China: the formal government and the People's Liberation Army.

There are, in addition to decision-making roles, advisory committees, including the People's Political Consultative Conference. During the 1980s and 1990s there was a Central Advisory Commission established by Deng Xiaoping which consisted of senior retired leaders, but with their passing this has been abolished since 1990.

Internal or external groupings

The flag of the Communist Party of China

Political scientists have identified two groupings within the Communist Party[6] leading to a structure which has been called "one party, two factions".[7] The first is the "elitist coalition" or Shanghai clique which contains mainly officials who have risen from the more prosperous provinces. The second is the "populist coalition" or "Youth League faction" which consists mainly of officials who have risen from the rural interior, through the Communist Youth League. The interaction between these two factions is largely complementary with each faction possessing a particular expertise and both committed to the continued rule of the Communist Party and not allowing intra-party factional politics threaten party unity. It has been noted that party and government positions have been assigned to create a very careful balance between these two groupings.

Within his "one party, two factions" model, Li Chen has noted that one should avoid labeling these two groupings with simplistic ideological labels, and that these two groupings do not act in a zero-sum, winner take all fashion. Neither group has the ability or will to dominate the other completely.[8]

Membership

The party was small at first, but grew intermittently through the 1920s. Twelve voting delegates were seated at the 1st National Party Congress in 1921, as well as at the 2nd (in 1922), when they represented 195 party members. By 1923, the 420 members were represented by 30 delegates. The 1925 4th Congress had 20 delegates representing 994 members; then real growth kicked in. The 5th Congress (held in April-May 1927 as the KMT was cracking down on communists) comprised 80 voting delegates representing 57,968 members.

It was at October 3, 1928 6th Congress that the now-familiar ‘full’ and ‘alternate’ structure originated, with 84 and 34 delegates, respectively. Membership was estimated at 40,000. In 1945, the 7th Congress had 547 full and 208 alternate delegates representing 1.21 million members, a ratio of one representative per 1,600 members as compared to 1:725 in 1927.

After the Party defeated the Nationalists, participation at National Party Congresses became much less representative. Each of the 1026 full and 107 alternate members represented 9,470 party members (10.73 million in total) at the 1956 8th Congress. Subsequent congresses held the number of participants down despite membership growing to more than 60 million by 2000.[9]

History

Location of the first Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921, in Xintiandi, former French Concession, Shanghai.

Criticism and support

Opinions about the Communist Party of China often create unexpected political alliances and divisions, comparable, e.g.: to divisions among conservatives in the United States. Many of the unexpected opinions about the CPC result from its rare combination of attributes as a party formally based on Marxism which has eventually overseen a market economy, yet maintains an authoritarian political system.

Critics

Self-criticism

Leaders of the communist Party of China are aware that there are serious problems with corruption and with maintaining the trust of the Chinese people. However, attempts made in closed-door sessions at Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China Central Committee in September 2009 to grapple with these problems produced inconclusive results although a directive which requires disclosure of investments and property holdings by party and governmental officials was passed.[13]

Supporters

Current leadership

The Members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China are:

  1. Hu Jintao: General Secretary of the CPC, President of the PRC, Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
  2. Wu Bangguo: Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
  3. Wen Jiabao: Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
  4. Jia Qinglin: Chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference
  5. Li Changchun: "Propaganda Chief"
  6. Xi Jinping: Top-ranked Secretary of CPC Secretariat, Vice President of the People's Republic of China
  7. Li Keqiang: Executive Vice Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
  8. He Guoqiang: Secretary of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
  9. Zhou Yongkang: Secretary of Political and Legislative Affairs Committee

Members of the Politburo of the CPC Central committee:

Wang Lequan, Wang Zhaoguo, Hui Liangyu, Liu Qi, Liu Yunshan, Li Changchun, Wu Yi, Wu Bangguo, Wu Guanzheng, Zhang Lichang, Zhang Dejiang, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Hu Jintao, Yu Zhengsheng, He Guoqiang, Jia Qinglin, Guo Boxiong, Cao Gangchuan, Zeng Qinghong, Zeng Peiyan, Wen Jiabao.

Alternate member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee: Wang Gang

Members of Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee: Zeng Qinghong, Liu Yunshan, Zhou Yongkang, He Guoqiang, Wang Gang, Xu Caihou, He Yong.

Leaders

Between 1921 and 1943 the Communist Party of China was headed by the General Secretary:

In 1943 the position of Chairman of the Communist Party of China was created.

In 1982, the post of Chairman was abolished, and the General Secretary, at this time held by the same man as the post of Chairman, once again became the supreme office of the Party.

See also

General:

Lists:

References

  1. The Communist Party of China
  2. Constitution of the People's Republic of China
  3. Ralph H. Folsom, John H. Minan, Lee Ann Otto, Law and Politics in the People's Republic of China, West Publishing (St. Paul 1992), pp. 76–77.
  4. China's communist party members near 78 mln
  5. Images of GO CPC in Session
  6. Uchicago.edu
  7. Chinavitae.com
  8. The Jamestown Foundation
  9. Press center of the 17th CPC National Congress
  10. The tragedy of the 1925-1927 Chinese Revolution: Part 3 Article at a Trotskist groupings website.
  11. The death of China’s “red capitalist” and the 1949 revolution Article at a Trotskist groupings website.
  12. Zhang, L., Nathan, A. J., Link, P. & Schell O. The Tiananmen Papers: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force Against Their Own People – In Their Own Words. PublicAffairs, 2002. ISBN 978-1586481223.
  13. "Party’s Agenda in China Seems to Fall Flat" article by Michael Wines in The New York Times September 20, 2009
  14. Yang, Dali. Remaking the Chinese Leviathan. Stanford University Press, 2004.
  15. An, Alex and An, David, China Brief, October 7, 2008. "Media control and the Erosion of an Accountable Party-State in China."

External links