Political Parties in The People's Republic of China - Relationships With The Communist Party

Relationships With The Communist Party

The dominance over the political system is such that China is effectively a single-party state. This means that only one political party, the CPC, holds effective power at the national level. Eight minor parties also participate in the political system under the leadership of the major party. The PRC political system allows for the participation of some non-party members and minor parties in the National People's Congress (NPC), but they are vetted by the CPC.

Although opposition parties are not formally banned in mainland China (the PRC), the CPC maintains control over the political system in several ways.

Firstly, the PRC political system is composed of a series of indirect elections in which one people's congress appoints the members of the next higher congress, and in which only the lowest people's congresses are subject to direct popular vote. This means that although independent members can theoretically, and occasionally in practice, get elected to the lowest level of congress, it is impossible for them to organize to the point where they can elect members to the next higher people's congress without the approval of the CPC or to exercise oversight over executive positions at the lowest level in the hierarchy. This lack of effective power also discourages outsiders from contesting the people's congress elections even at the lowest level.

Second, although PRC law has no formal provision for banning a non-religious organization, it also has no provision which would give non-CPC political parties any corporate status. This means that a hypothetical opposition party would have no legal means to collect funds or own property in the name of the party. More importantly, PRC law also has a wide range of offenses which can and have been used against the leaders of efforts to form an opposition party such as the China Democracy Party and against members of organizations that the CPC sees as threatening its power. These include the crimes of subversion, sedition, and releasing state secrets. Moreover, the control that the Party has over the legislative and judicial processes means that the Party can author legislation that targets a particular group.