The scale and structure of the CPC

According to the Party Constitution, any Chinese citizen who is over 18 and willing to accept the Party’s constitution and policies, for example being an atheist, may apply for the membership of the CPC. However, the approval rate is somewhat low. For example, while there were 21 million applicants in 2010, only 15% of them were accepted, of which less than a quarter were female (Zhao, 2011). In light of the statistics released by the Organization Department of the Communist Party Central Committee in 2011, the CPC has 80 million members which constitute approximately 6% of the total population in China (Zhao, 2011).

In accordance with the provisions of the Party Constitution, all Party members, regardless of their rank, must belong to a branch or a specific unit to attend the regular Party activities. These branches and units cover almost all the organizations and institutions in China. Most of the branches and units are distributed among official and semi-official organizations and institutions, including state-owned enterprises and academic institutes. The CPC also tries to set up Party cells within private enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises. These Party cells hold a great deal of influence within enterprises. The only exception is within the wholly foreign-owned enterprises, where the Party holds very little power. An increasing number of young people in China are eager to join the CPC precisely because of the ubiquity of Party organizations and the great control on promotion it wields in the public sector. The whole structure of the CPC can be divided into the central, local and the grass-roots parts. The central part is the highest authority and decision-making organization of the whole Party. CPC local organizations exist in the public sector at the provincial, municipal and county levels. Grass-roots organizations are widely present in enterprises, rural areas, offices, schools, research institutes, communities, social organizations, the enterprises owned by PLA and other grass-roots units. Based on the CPC’s constitution, as long as there are three full Party members in such organizations and institutions, a formal grass-roots Party unit will be set up.

At the very top of the entire Party system stands the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC). It is the most powerful and highest decision-making unit. It is composed of nine members, who are regarded as the nine most powerful men in China and are always named “the Big Nine”. Under PSC, there is a board Politburo which is composed of 23 members. These 23 people lead the Central Committee, which is composed of nearly 370 official and alternate members. Of the nine men who compose the PSC, each of them is concurrently responsible for the leadership in one or a few specific political systems. The top-ranking PSC member, General Secretary Xi Jinping, for example, concurrently serves as the chairman of the Central Military Commission and as the president of the PRC, which means he is the head of the state and military force. Zhang Dejiang, who is the second highest ranking member in the PSC, serves as the head of the NPC. Li Keqiang, the third most powerful man in China, serves as the premier of the State Council. In the fourth place is Yu Zhengsheng, who is responsible for the leadership of the CPPCC and the supervision of the non-communist group’s relationship with the Party. Other members in the PSC include the senior bureaucrats in the propaganda system, in the management of Party bureaucracy, finance and economics, Party discipline and internal security system (Lawrence and Martin, 2013).

The full Politburo is the decision-making body below the PSC. Besides the nine men in the PSC, these members include the heads of major departments of the Party bureaucracy, the two highest-ranking officers in the Military Force, the vice premier of the State Council, State Councillors and the heads of important provinces and cities. Due to the relatively large size and geographic diversity of the personnel, the full Politburo is not involved in the decision making of day-to-day work. Their work tends to focus on discussing important issues and preparing for the national conference (Lawrence and Martin, 2013).

The power of the PSC and full Politburo comes from the Central Committee in the lower layer. Approximately 370 official and alternate members together elect the Party General Secretary Politburo Standing Committee and the full Politburo, and “decide” on the composition of the Party’s Central Military Commission. Members

of the Central Committee come from various parts of China’s political system including the provinces (41.5% of members), central ministries (22.6%), the military (17.5%), central Party organizations (5.9%), state-owned enterprises, educational institutions, “mass organizations” such as the Communist Youth League, and other constituencies (12.4%) (Li, 2008).

According to the Party’s constitution, the Central Committee derives its power from the Party Congress. The congress is held every five years, during which over 2,000 delegates elect the members of the Central Committee. Meanwhile, delegates of the congress review and approve the Party General Secretary and report to the NPC, revealing the Party’s position and entire plan for the next five years. In the time between two Party congresses, the Central Committee is required to meet at least once per year. Each meeting is called a plenum. The plenum generally discusses a specific aspect of the developing direction and makes important appointments and dismissals. For example, in October 2010, the fifth plenum of the 18th Party Congress discussed and approved the 12th five-year plan which covered 2011 to 2015. The meeting also approved the appointment of Xi Jinping as the first vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. The action was widely considered to be in preparation for Xi to become the next supreme leader of the Party in 2012 (Lawrence and Martin, 2013). When a plenum ends, the Party will issue a communique to announce the major decisions made during the meeting.