How does the Chinese Communist Party operate?

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The Communist Party of China has been the dominant political entity running the nation since 1949. During that time, the body also known as the Chinese Communist Party has led the country from a poor, insular existence to a role as a global economic powerhouse. But along the way, the party has kept a tight grip on power and quashed any form of dissent. The Post explains how the Communist Party works and how it runs China.


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[-gb]

Normal Chinese people don't even care about this system while the comments are in war.

[willz]

"We have elections at home"

Elections at home:

[canto_v]

Minor but interesting tidbit for those unfamiliar: The Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party that lost the Chinese War and fled to Taiwan) is still a legitimate minor political party and has non-CCP seats at the National People's Congress. Their post-war name is "Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang."

According to Wikipedia, they have 43 seats in the NPC and 6 seats in the NPC Standing Committee, which means they do actually carry some influence.

[LaVaZ]

Let's see what the experts in the comments have to say:

[Александрблядь]

it’s hard to have an opposition if you don’t allow an opposition.

[mindu]

China was ruled by one-party before 1949 - KMT ruled China from 1920s to 1949.
SCMP incorrectly stated that China was ruled by one-party starting from 1949.

[kazuhirala]

They’re basically CAPCOM (Capitlism/Communism) and they use each when they see fit.

[akagi]

Here before the comment section starts World War 3.

[kvassmacncheese]

As a chinese... I will say this is incredibly accurate!
Finally someone has a chance to explain things here

[AlokKumar-uvco]

As an INDIAN one can criticise China as much as he But they are developing with a superfast speed it means they are doing right things

[穹-uq]

The oppositions remain widespread in the party, one whole party doesn't mean all the communists share the same opinion.

[YananLiAsura]

Ever since the fall of Jack Ma, South China Morning Post, one of Ma's major publishing business outside China, has taken a sharp turn on its point of view towards the motherland of its owner.

[xiaqinyueac]

At least it's unlike the political system in my country where even a boxer can run for the highest position 😂

[jbi]

It’s not the economy, it’s the quality of life that matters.

[chaosXPRT]

In China and many other countries, there is a strong belief that the benefit of the many outweighs the liberties of the individual. This is in contrast to a nation like the USA, which values the liberties of the individual more greatly. As an American, the USA has always struggled with this belief in the individual. It suffers from crony capitalism giving too much power to wealthy individuals and corporations, while simultaneously oppressing groups of people and occupying foreign nations. Many Americans argue for a stronger central government that places the needs and wants of the many over the liberties of the individuals. Yet, other Americans resist this and even argue that the US government is already too oppressive. They believe that individual liberties need to be strengthened. I believe that the USA's problems all stem from the ideas of the Enlightenment that founded the nation, while it was corrupted by individuals with great power and no desire to fulfill those founding ideals.

If I were to praise China on anything, I would say at least China's government is less confusing and the country has less civil strife than the USA.

[johnnyw]

In this video there are some misleading statement.
China is governed by only 1 party, and the leader is not elected, at least not via a typical directly voted way. But it is far from dictatorship, and certainly less of dictatorship than many western countries.
China system is classified as Meritocracy, for the following reasons:
1, The top governors. China is not governed by the president alone, the highest decision maker is not a person, instead it's a group of 5 or 7 people called the "Standing Committee of the Political Bureau"(SCPB), the members of which normally hold the following positions:
President,

and/or Vice- President,

Congress Chairman,

Prime Minister,

Military Committee Chairman (normally same person as the President, but not always)

Chairman of Political Consultative Conference Committee, and one in charge of legislative affairs (the Court, the Procuratorate, Inspection, and Police affairs)

By controlling those positions, the China Communist Party (CCP) run the country.
It's no one-rules-all situation. Power is well balances and mutually conditioned. Believe me, more or less the committee members do not share a uniform political interest. It kind of like a weaker multi party system, except that it's multi-group within one party President Xi, who is also the chairman of Military Committee, holds the strongest position among the 7 people, but he's no way to dictate. What he says for the critical issues is actually not from himself, it's from the committee instead, if he disagrees, sorry, he has to reserve it. Therefore, the country is led by a "collectively leadership".

In this mean, President Xi is far less powerful in China than President Trump in USA.

2, The selection and promotion system. In china, the leaders are not elected, but selected. Well, theoretically, the President and the VP Military Committee chairman, President of Supreme Court, and Procurator General are voted by the Congress, but in practical, they are nominated by the only ruling party, there're not too much of voting. How a guy get to be nominated is important. There's a so called "Organization Department" in CCP whose role is pretty much like the HR department in a big company. This department is in charge of the annual appraisal of all government officials, as well as trainings, promotions, and anything you can imagine happening in a HR department. They have a very sophisticated procedure to do the job, the most important weighting factors for an official performance would be GDP social stability, and so on.

Basically, for a guy to enter central government, he has to continue to be outstanding for tens of years. The power center of the CCP would be the Political Bureau which consists of like twenty people. Once in the Political Bureau, he's qualified for the final power game. To get to be the member of the standing committee (the most powerful 5 or 7 guys), there would be a lot of balancing, gaming, and wrestling. Of course you wouldn't expect those competitions are just between several individuals, actually each player is backed up by some group, and in return he speaks for the group. That gives you an idea of how a guy struggle his way to be a national leader

3, The history of China Meritocracy. There are a lot of concepts borrowed from the westerners in current China political system. However, there's also huge cultural heritage from the history. The origin of the mentioned official selection system can be tracked back to one thousand years ago, the Sui Dynasty. The system was called "Kejue", ( see Wiki Imperial examination ) it's a series of national examinations to promote the talented people to the ruling class, all the way from the very bottom of the society The examinations are four levels in series, held annually. Almost everyone in the country are welcome, except for a small portion of the population (like less than 1%) such as those in the prostitution, or entertainment businesses. If you decide to go with this path, you would start studying very hard, mostly those Confucius classical works, alone with history, literature, and philosophies. Once you pass the entry level exam, you will officially be a "Shi". It elevate yourself from the civilian class (consists of farmers, workers, and businessmen), then you get privileges such as free from some taxes and the corvee labor obligation, in any audience with local governors, you will be offered a chair, and don't have to bow to him, and more importantly, he will be authorized to get involved in some very local management affairs by the local government, etc. but that's far from enough In order to get your hand into politics, you need go further and take the next level exams, with higher and higher possibilities to enter the government, all the way to the final one, with is designed and held by the emperor himself. If you pass that you will be the envied "JinShi" and guaranteed to enter government, and most possibly, end up your career.

This is how the civilians, even the poorest from the bottom of the society, are able to lift himself up to the upper class.

4. The elitism in current China system. Elitism is naturally compatible with meritocracy, and it has deep root in Chinese culture too. One of a famous slogan from Confucius is "mental labors rule others, and physical labors. are ruled by others", You can also find such similar thoughts in ancient poets such as "Everything are low, expect reading is noble". For CCP, it claims to be communism, speak for the working class, and have a foundation made of worker-peasant alliance. Seemingly it stands right opposite to the elitism And yes, such populism had its way during the Cultural Revolution when Mao ruled the country. At that time, family being bottom of the class is worth of being proud of, and on the contrary, the rich people, professors, scholars, even some military generals were humiliated, tortured, and even killed by "the majorities of workers and peasants". But over these years the CCP evolves into, in my point, a club of elites and has nothing to do with communism expect for the official name. The prerequisite to be admitted by the party is now not based on the belief or the political interest, it's actually based on your performance (in career or in society) and your influence power. So if you want be a governor, join the party first.

[mikeevans]

you don't need to have an opposition party to have different opinions. if you think all the members of the communist party are all forced to agree with each other, how is it possible they can improve? China could not have improved so much if they don't have self reflection, self criticism and self betterment of their mistakes. actually democratic nations having showed that having an opposition party actually stagnates improvement and development, because parties make it a sport to go against each other no matter what.

[zimpiratecoms]

This video is incomplete.

It doesn't even explain the process one goes through to become a Politburo member or even a President

[Nathan-jhho]

I like how their legislative body is called the "NPC", it's full of NPCs.

[recordkeepingandinformatio]

2:13 who had the bright idea to name the national congress NPCs?